Progress Update

All of the internals for the first launch of the balloon have been ordered.  When they arrive, I will assemble them and find out the final weight of the flight hardware.  This is important for a number of reasons:

1. If the final weight is less than 4 pounds, some regulations seize to apply- to see more information about the regulations that apply to unmanned balloons see  http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.3.15&idno=14
2. The weight will be an important factor in determining the size of the balloon and parachute needed to reach the desired altitude and land safely
3. The lighter the flight module, the more potential I have to add ballast that will stabilize the module during flight

There are some complications here- the whole point of doing a test flight is to learn something for the real launch where there will be hardware used to measure gamma radiation.  So I may end up adding weight just to better simulate what the next launch will be like. 

Stay tuned for impact and thermal testing this week.