Comment by tagami | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tagami | Hacker News Reader

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We launch about 8-12 HABs a year with K-12 schools across the US. We follow FAA guidelines, and file a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) as well as contact local officials in the estimated landing zone. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/part-101/subpart-D

Most of our payloads are under 2.5kg so we can fly on smaller 1000g balloons. There is a shortage of helium currently, but we prefer it over hydrogen because it is an inert gas.

If you like to volunteer your time, the US Dept of Education will be making an announcement in the next few weeks for a CubeSat Challenge. First stage is building prototypes - which of course could be launched in a HAB or High Power Rocket.

You can track a number of our flights on https://aprs.fi KK6UUQ. Here is a launch from Saturday that we did with USC and LA Unified School District: https://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=11&call=a%2FKK6UUQ-11&timeran...

If you are into this, check out https://magnitude.io

>There is a shortage of helium currently, but we prefer it over hydrogen because it is an inert gas.

When we did our launch, we originally planned on a Hydrogen launch because we were informed of the Helium shortage. We bought all of our equipment based on Hydrogen being the gas. This is important for those that do not know as Hydrogen equipment has specific fittings so that it will not work with any other gas equipment. This is to prevent accidental/unexpected use of Hydrogen due to it being so volatile.

When we showed up to pick up the tank of Hydrogen, the employee really hesitated selling us the tank of gas. He explained that the flames from Hydrogen gas is colorless, so we could be on fire before we even saw the flames. The flames only display color when the flames catch other material begins to burn. He ultimately exchanged all of our Hydrogen equipment for Helium, and sold us the tank of Helium.

Father in law (rest in peace) worked for a while at a hydrogen reduced iron plant. Basically they were baking iron in ovens filled with H2. They had UV detectors hooked up to alarms for this reason.

Can I get in touch with you? I am located in southern California. My sons school would love this

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