The Launch Site

Bend, Oregon (the middle of nowhere)

As I posted earlier, we're going to be launching just southeast of Bend, Oregon. Why Bend? You can tell from the picture the reason. This shot is from Google Earth taken from one of the local highways. Yep, not a whole lot to see. It is quite desolate, which provides a perfect place to launch and recover without bothering anyone. Another reason: the trees. You'll notice that they are quite short and not too dense. This will make it quite easy to recover the capsule because of the high probability it will land on the ground and not get stuck up in a tree. It also makes traveling to the landing site easy and fast. 

How did I choose this site? Honestly, I just looked at Oregon in Google Earth and found what looked like the flattest and most desolate area (no offense to anyone living in Bend). It may be difficult to see, but Bend is right there in the center of Oregon. You may say "what about that area in the north? It looks pretty desolate." You're right, it is desolate, but the terrain there is pretty hilly, which could make transportation difficult. I had also previously considered using the Willamette Valley (that grayish strip south of Portland). However, according to wind predictions, the balloon would be propelled Eastward by the wind and end up in the Cascade Range, which has poor cell service.

That brings us another reason we chose Bend.

Although it may be difficult to see in this picture, it shows that our landing zone (we'll get to that next) should be within coverage. Why do we need cell service? Our method of recovery requires communication with a cell phone, so if it landed in a coverage-free zone, all we would have to find it would be wind predictions and dumb luck (believe me, I really don't want to have to find it without gps coordinates). To predict the landing location, we use a program called CUSF Landing Predictor 2.0, which you can find here. That's about all I have to say about location, but things may change depending on wind predictions, new locations etc. The next post will probably be about the individual elements like the camera, balloon, parachute, cell phone and things of that nature. I will be making a new post at least once a week, so be sure to check back often!