HERE space odyssey or how our employees spend their weekends
Hi, Habr.
We are constantly talking about technology, applications, scientific research and gadgets, often forgetting that ordinary people are behind all this.
But today we want to talk on a bit of an abstract topic and tell you how HERE employees spend their free time. Driven by anything that might be connected with geolocation, a small team of developers on their ownorganized cosplay Felix Baumgartner created a high-altitude probe and launched it into the stratosphere.
One weekend, the team that participated in the development of the project gathered in the small town of Lichtenberg, located in the eastern part of Germany.
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Their plan was not only to launch an improvised probe into the stratosphere, but also to capture the entire flight from an aircraft. Especially for this purpose, a special design was developed, consisting of means of lifting and lowering, an easy “fuselage”, comprising a Nokia smartphone (as a control device and a slide) and a GoPro camera. But first things first.
The team began the development of the project from a parachute: a sufficiently large canvas (1.2 meters in diameter) was taken as a basis, which should ensure a smooth landing for a cargo weighing up to 1.5 kilograms.
After a series of test landings, the project participants began to develop the main module. A meteorological balloon, filled with helium, was attached to which the main block of the high-altitude probe was subsequently attached.
The design of the main unit consisted of the fuselage, inside which, in addition to the parachute, the HERE team placed a smartphone, which should be responsible for controlling the aircraft, photo and video. In addition, after landing, the smartphone must send its landing coordinates via SMS to the launch pad. Thus, the team will be able to pick up the module and extract all the records.
Also, in addition to the smartphone, the GoPro was installed in the main unit (this choice was due only to the wide-angle lens and its security) as the main camera for shooting and a backup GPS tracker with GSM support. The internal frame on which the devices were fastened consisted of blocks of expanded polystyrene, which provided the entire structure with lightness and, at the same time, relative strength.
Finally, in order to prevent freezing and, consequently, the failure of all electrical appliances at strong negative temperatures (reaching -50 ° C), the designers installed two electric heaters powered by finger batteries.
Photo taken during the flight
And so, when the whole structure was assembled, the day came for launch. Since in Europe people like to follow all the rules, the team previously received official permission to fly in the Organization of Air Navigation Services of Germany, and now nothing could interfere with the flight of the balloon.
Nothing but the weather. But on this day, the HERE team was lucky, the weather was on their side: the sun was shining outside, there was a completely clear horizon and a couple of clouds in the sky.
After the launch, the HERE probe, smoothly and without any special adventures, began to climb to the cherished mark: 30,000 meters above sea level. And this “journey” gave the HERE team a lot of really impressive photo and video materials, including recordings and images of the ultramarine areola of the Earth, sorry for the pun, unearthly beauty.
After the balloon exploded, the HERE probe began its descent. The parachute, as it was intended, opened at an altitude of 3,000 to 2,000 meters, after which the aircraft made an almost successful landing on top of a 30-meter pine tree in the Czech part of the Ore Mountains.
The flight time from take-off to landing was one hour and forty-five minutes. During this time, the probe covered a distance of 70 kilometers from the launch site.
This is how one of the weekends of HERE employees passed. And what interesting projects do you do in your free time?
We are constantly talking about technology, applications, scientific research and gadgets, often forgetting that ordinary people are behind all this.
But today we want to talk on a bit of an abstract topic and tell you how HERE employees spend their free time. Driven by anything that might be connected with geolocation, a small team of developers on their own
One weekend, the team that participated in the development of the project gathered in the small town of Lichtenberg, located in the eastern part of Germany.
')
Their plan was not only to launch an improvised probe into the stratosphere, but also to capture the entire flight from an aircraft. Especially for this purpose, a special design was developed, consisting of means of lifting and lowering, an easy “fuselage”, comprising a Nokia smartphone (as a control device and a slide) and a GoPro camera. But first things first.
The team began the development of the project from a parachute: a sufficiently large canvas (1.2 meters in diameter) was taken as a basis, which should ensure a smooth landing for a cargo weighing up to 1.5 kilograms.
After a series of test landings, the project participants began to develop the main module. A meteorological balloon, filled with helium, was attached to which the main block of the high-altitude probe was subsequently attached.
The design of the main unit consisted of the fuselage, inside which, in addition to the parachute, the HERE team placed a smartphone, which should be responsible for controlling the aircraft, photo and video. In addition, after landing, the smartphone must send its landing coordinates via SMS to the launch pad. Thus, the team will be able to pick up the module and extract all the records.
Also, in addition to the smartphone, the GoPro was installed in the main unit (this choice was due only to the wide-angle lens and its security) as the main camera for shooting and a backup GPS tracker with GSM support. The internal frame on which the devices were fastened consisted of blocks of expanded polystyrene, which provided the entire structure with lightness and, at the same time, relative strength.
Finally, in order to prevent freezing and, consequently, the failure of all electrical appliances at strong negative temperatures (reaching -50 ° C), the designers installed two electric heaters powered by finger batteries.
Photo taken during the flight
And so, when the whole structure was assembled, the day came for launch. Since in Europe people like to follow all the rules, the team previously received official permission to fly in the Organization of Air Navigation Services of Germany, and now nothing could interfere with the flight of the balloon.
Nothing but the weather. But on this day, the HERE team was lucky, the weather was on their side: the sun was shining outside, there was a completely clear horizon and a couple of clouds in the sky.
After the launch, the HERE probe, smoothly and without any special adventures, began to climb to the cherished mark: 30,000 meters above sea level. And this “journey” gave the HERE team a lot of really impressive photo and video materials, including recordings and images of the ultramarine areola of the Earth, sorry for the pun, unearthly beauty.
After the balloon exploded, the HERE probe began its descent. The parachute, as it was intended, opened at an altitude of 3,000 to 2,000 meters, after which the aircraft made an almost successful landing on top of a 30-meter pine tree in the Czech part of the Ore Mountains.
The flight time from take-off to landing was one hour and forty-five minutes. During this time, the probe covered a distance of 70 kilometers from the launch site.
This is how one of the weekends of HERE employees passed. And what interesting projects do you do in your free time?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/216663/
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