Here some insight fron Dan Bowen from UTARC from another list:
We actually had 8000 seconds of ballast total on board (the 100% mark on the graphic dashboard). We have not finished the data analysis yet of the flight, but all of the ballast was used up after the first sunset - far more than had been expected. Cause of this is yet to be determined. As you may know, the sunset event is the ruthless killer of lift, and we escaped it by the skin of our teeth. Exhausting the ballast left us still in a very shallow descent, not according to plan! As the 30m radio blackout began in the late evening, we honestly thought we'd never hear it again. You'll see, in our altitude graphs, the amazing brush with the ocean it had - down to less than 10000 ft and falling at dawn. The sun, ever so slowly, started raising it from the imminent doom at that point to regain great speed in a very low-level jet stream, continuing on for hundreds more miles before sunset. For all our intricate planning, these long duration balloon flights remind me very much of the early sea voyages - mother nature is your finest friend and fiercest foe.
Thanks, Dan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Jackson" bbj@innismir.net To: G0MRF@aol.com Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 10:28 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Spirit of Knoxville
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G0MRF@aol.com wrote: | Looks like the Spirit of knoxville balloon flight is over the Atlantic and | heading for the UK and Europe | | _http://www.spiritofknoxville.com/dashboard/dashboard.html_ | (http://www.spiritofknoxville.com/dashboard/dashboard.html)
Well if by "heading to UK and Europe" you mean "swimming to UK and Europe"
"Balloon looks to have splashed down at about 1900 UTC. Still listening for any signal. 03:07 PM March 12, 2008"
Still 40 hours, 3300 miles, and they almost made it. I was rooting for the balloon, just came up short. I hope they have better luck next time!
Ben Jackson - N1WBV - New Bedford, MA bbj <at> innismir.net - http://www.innismir.net/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
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