The balloon flight of CHAOSjunior was a total success. We were able to recover our instrument near Neubrandenburg and recorded a lot of useful data.
After the launch of the balloon at around 11:45 am we met up at the university and started to follow the balloon by car. The predictions said our balloon would land in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, so we started in the direction of Rostock. Unfortunately, the tracker did not work properly. At around 02:25 pm we recieved a message from the balloon while it was already sinking with an altitude of around 10 km. But this was the only message we recieved. The tracker stopped sending and we already started worrying. After not hearing from the ballon for a while, we decided to make a short break. After some snacks we decided to wait for another 30 minutes before driving home. But then the tracker sent a sign of life at 03:20 pm. The coordinates were 53.671600, 13.448170 with an altitude of 53 m. We concluded that CHAOSjunior landed at these coordinates and continued our journey. The tracker led us to a small forest near Neubrandenburg where we did not have to search for long. After crossing a small dried-up river we found CHAOSjunior hanging in a tree. Recovering the instrument was very easy because it hang in a height of around 1.5 m. At 04:37 pm we reported the successful recovery of CHAOSjunior back to Kiel. Back at the car we saved the recorded data and started our journey back home. At around 09:00 pm we were back at the Physikzentrum.
We were already able to evaluate some of the recoreded data.
This is the route which CHAOSjunior took. It fits pretty well to the predictions. The ballon reached a height of 40 km near Tessin were it burst and started descending.
Here we can see the temperature and pressure curves of the internal (1) and external (2) sensors of the probe. The pressure decreased in higher altitudes and started rising again after the balloon burst.
Furthermore, we took a first look at the measurements of CHAOSjunior. In this fish plot muons and helium are visible. Further explanations and investigations of the data will be added to the CHAOSjunior subpage.
But one of the most stunning things are the photos which our onboard camera recorded. Just take a look at these pictures of Kiel and our earth.
The only thing left to do is to say thank you. Thanks to the Department of Extraterrestrial Physics at Kiel University and “Highlights der Physik” for the help. And thank you to all members of our CHAOS team who worked on CHAOSjunior.
Visit our Instagram channel @chaos.bexus to see more of our recovery mission. More information on CHAOSjunior and the analysis of our data will be added to the corresponding subpage.