Published on
August 26, 2009 in
Uncategorized.
On Saturday, August 22, 2009, we were going through routine flight tests in front of Raymond’s house when an updraft carried it and it escaped into the atmosphere. After following it for an hour and a half, we lost sight of it in the Mission Hills area, and we predict that it has landed in the local hills by I-680.
Efforts to retrieve the airship have not yet succeeded, but we are in contact with local aviation authorities, residents, and the media.
On Monday, August 24, we went out to the area we believe the blimp was lost. We handed out several flyers, contacted residents, and scouted several areas we didn’t get to on Saturday. No luck finding it. We plan on another day hike on Thursday, August 27.
Although we regret the loss of our hybrid airship, we see this as an opportunity to start anew and improve upon our original prototype. We have a spare carbon-fiber frame and blimp envelopes, and are planning to add more features to the design, including possible use of SunSPOTs as a computer controlled system with gyroscope capabilities and more. We also plan to integrate reversible ESCs, stabilization improvements, and a fail-safe mechanism.
Designing
Part of our VEX frame
During the month of August, the Funky Shiitake Mushrooms met often to complete a number of goals. However, not all of the team members were present throughout the month. Eric was gone for three weeks to work for Stratum Energy Systems in Ohio. Catherine, having finished her work with the Oakland Children’s Hospital, is taking a week off to spend time with her family in Alaska before school starts.
We decided to enter the Digital Open, an online technological competition for youths. Additionally, we began building our robot for Vex Robotics Competition. Today, we’re refining and restoring the blimp to flying condition. Raymond is working on the speed controllers, Eric cleaned up the wiring, while David and I ran around for materials (such as helium). Eric and David are reattaching the blimps to the frame as I type.
Oh snap, did we burn out a battery?
At other meetings, we typed up our project report for the Digital Open, which can be found here: http://digitalopen.org/projects/hybrid-airship. Also, Catherine, Raymond, David and I finished building the frame of our robot which will be entered into the VRC in late October. Hopefully we’ll be able to finish the internal workings soon. Eric, who has been in Ohio for the last three weeks, has stayed in contact with the rest of the team and was researching the logistics of patenting our dual-blimp design.
School begins for us in less than two weeks. As seniors, we’re all taking challenging classes, applying for college, and juggling other extra-curricular activities on top of working as the Funky Shiitake Mushrooms. However, I have full confidence that we’ll be able to succeed this year, just as we have in the years before.