Fik 2 Stratospheric Balloon Flight

Following several months of preparations, a joint team of students and researchers from the Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS (NPI CAS) and the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU in Prague) launched the Fik 2 stratospheric balloon from the Dlouhá Lhota Airport near Příbram, Czech Republic.

Aided by three ground stations, the ballon provided a live stream of telemetry and detector data; these were then shared online to the project team and also to the general public via HabHub balloon tracker and Twitter feed (in Czech). Thanks to the involvement of the general public, the gondola and parachute were successfully located and retrieved three hours later near Brno in South Moravia.

Objectives of the experiment were to test the positioning and communication solution developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the CTU in Prague by the group of Pavel Kovář and to measure cosmic radiation at different altitudes using active and passive radiation detectors. The positioning and communication system were tested successfully.

A modular system of lightweight 3D printed boards provided structural support for all the devices in balloon gondola - including the central CPU platform, CANDY detector, radio modem, GPS module and batteries. In case of collision with a plane, these easy to break structures would minimise the impact. Kinetic shock during start inadvertently led to activation of this feature - resulting in unavailability of the CANDY detector data.

The event also contributed to increasing the interest in cosmic radiation and stratospheric balloon flights among the students and general public.

Short video overview of the flight: