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About the GroupSeveral of the articles in this information area appear in the Special Edition of the "Stratosphere" that we hand out at hamfests. For brevity's sake, I've linked them to that online edition of the newsletter. At the bottom of those duplicate articles you will see: Go to Table of Contents Selecting "Return to Special Edition" will take you out of this information area and place you at the Contents for that newsletter. BEWARE ;-) Contents
What is EOSSEdge of Space Sciences (EOSS) is a Denver, Colorado based non-profit organization that promotes science and education by exploring frontiers in amateur radio and high altitude balloons. Since its first flight in 1990, EOSS has grown its volunteer membership's numbers and skills over the course of more than 100 launches, ascents into the stratosphere and payload recoveries. Today, it is widely recognized as one of the premier organizations in its field. EOSS was incorporated in the State of Colorado in 1991 and is recognized by both Colorado and the U.S. Government as a 501(c)(3), tax exempt, scientific and educational organization. Go to Table of Contents Return to Special Edition What We DoOur members utilize amateur radio and balloons to advance scientific study of the upper atmosphere. We regularly work with educators, offering valuable opportunities to enhance their students' studies of science, mathematics and technology through real, hands-on experience. EOSS has conducted as many as thirteen balloon projects in a year, sending radio-equipped payloads deep into the stratosphere over eastern Colorado. Our typical apogee of 95,000 feet is above 99% of the Earth's atmospheric mass, where the sky is black and the highest clouds remain far below. VHF and UHF radio signals transmitted from this height are received as far as 400 miles away! Sometimes called the "Edge of Space", this largely unexplored territory offers a wealth of opportunities for scientific observation and has even served as a reasonable approximation to outer space for testing prototype spacecraft. Gas balloons are the most practical means to get there, since rockets can visit it only briefly, and it is unattainable by ground-based aircraft. Because of the low cost of balloon flight expendables and recovery of payloads, one local high school teacher characterized EOSS as the "Poor Man's Space Program". Individuals have many opportunities to exchange ideas with their fellow members. A monthly meeting is conducted the second Tuesday of each month. On each remaining Tuesday, a radio meeting on-the-air, or net, is conducted at 8 P.M. During this "net" weekly updates on EOSS projects and news bulletins concerning amateur radio balloon projects around the country are discussed. You need not have an Amateur Radio License to listen in to the on the air nets. They can easily be monitored on most police type scanners. Stop by a Radio Shack and see how inexpensively you can get into the monitoring hobby. Who knows, you might even take the next step and get your Ham License. If you do intend to obtain a scanner, make sure it will receive two different bands. The two meter band is where most of our communications will take place and that happens between 144 MHz and 148 MHz. When the chase team is out hunting down a balloon they use the 70 centimeter band which is between 440 MHz and 450 MHz. Just about all scanners cover these frequencies, but, ask your dealer to be sure the scanner you are looking at will pick them up. If you can see the front range of Colorado you probably need no more than the little antenna that comes with the scanner. Hams talk through a device called a repeater. Repeaters are remote automated stations on high towers or mountain tops, where they retransmit incoming signals. Coloradoans have the ideal environment for this type of communications system. Many repeaters are located at and even above the 10,000 foot level. Since Denver is a "Mile Hi", 5280 feet, that means we have many repeaters with antennas effectively 4,720 feet in the air. People in flatter terrain areas of the country are quite envious of that transmitter height. You will often be able to hear the Chase teams all over eastern Colorado. Go to Table of Contents Return to Special Edition Student InvolvementAs our motto implies, education plays a very important role in EOSS activities. Although each flight is a learning experience for our members, EOSS actively solicits schools to enhance their science and technology curricula with a trip to the Edge of Space. EOSS has worked with many Colorado schools, from middle schools in Pueblo, Longmont and Aurora through high schools and Colorado Space Grant colleges. We have also worked with other science-oriented youth groups, such as the Lockheed-Martin Explorers, IAAS and STARS. Student experiments have ranged from simple temperature and pressure telemetry to gas sampling and solar telescopes. Many student groups have gained valuable knowledge simply by participating in EOSS launch, telemetry and DF tracking activities. EOSS members have conducted classroom presentations ranging from short briefings to day-long seminars, and many hours have been devoted to helping students prepare their payloads for launch. EOSS has also provided its well developed operational skills to several organizations engaged in scientific research, including NOAA's Forecast Systems Lab and contractors to JPL's Mars Microballoon Project. In 1993, EOSS hosted the first National Balloon Symposium, bringing together experts from both professional and amateur balloon groups nationwide. Go to Table of Contents Return to Special Edition How about EOSS Membership?EOSS draws upon its members' broad range of skills to support its diverse activities, including:
EOSS members gain a great deal of satisfaction from their participation in EOSS activities:
EOSS is always interested in bringing in new members who are interested in what we do. Those who are willing and able to participate in our various efforts are especially welcome. Amateur radio plays a strong role in EOSS operations, and many of its members are licensed amateur radio operators. But licensing is not a requirement. Many members have earned their ham licenses shortly after having seen how useful and fun ham radio is! Students are especially encouraged to join at a discounted rate. See the EOSS Membership application page for a form you can fill out and send in. Operational SystemsStandardized payloads, called "Shuttles" have been developed and are being refined to accommodate various experiments. Many of these experiments have been designed and built by students. EOSS has successfully launched AND recovered 65 payloads. Our "shuttles" are now equipped with GPS to assist in recovery efforts. We fly a variety of radio payloads on each flight. A two meter beacon on 147.555 MHz, a B&W (shuttle I) or Color (shuttle II) tv picture transmitted via ATV on 426.250 MHz, and a telemetry stream on packet radio at either 144.340 MHz. In addition to our electronic payload systems we also occasionally fly a 35mm still camera. An onboard computer designed by Bob Schellhorn, NØTI, is used to collect data from various onboard sensors (internal and external temperature, barometric pressure in the form of altitude, position information derived from a GPS receiver) and student experiments. It then assembles the information into ax.25 packets and transmits them to the ground. This signal is easily monitored by anyone within the radio horizon of the payload. In the event of a GPS failure, direction finding teams out in the field can use the various transmitters onboard to locate a payload using radio direction finding (RDF) techniques. Go to Table of Contents EOSS Officers for 2013
Go to Table of Contents EOSS Sub-CommitteesEdge of Space Sciences subdivides it's operations into various committees. If you would like to volunteer for one of these committees contact the appropriate lead officer. Technical Committee
Tracking and Recovery Teams
Educational Committee
Public Relations
Launch Operations Crew
Go to Table of Contents StratosphereA newsletter, the "Stratosphere", used to be published quarterly and contained both technical and non-technical articles for dissemination of information to EOSS members. The previously published newsletters are available online. I'd be willing to start up the "Strat" again for the membership but place the issues here, online in Adobe Acrobat format. That way you can read them online or, print it out yourself. If we get sufficient interest generated at our meetings I'll get on this. Go to Table of Contents Electronic Communications ChannelsMany members have email addresses. However, we were trolled by one spambot and it was decided to take the online list down. If you need someone's email address, send me a request and I'll furnish it if that individual was listed on that page. We have an automated list server which can keep you up to date on the latest activities of the group. Go to Table of Contents |
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