[757labs] HackerSpaces in Space 2011

[Almost_There at COX.Net]

Steve;

 >all it takes to make it is stick an anode and cathode in a bowl of water.

     (Recalling from research I did years ago): What you're talking 
about is building an Electrolyser, not all that dissimilar from a 
home-made battery or fuel cell; it works, but VERY slowly, it would 
take weeks (if not months) to generate enough gas.

At 09:29 AM 10/19/2011, you wrote:
>The scoring seems to really be weighted toward the documentation 
>side. Probably because they're trying to make a kit that kids could 
>build from. We should figure out what it will take to score 100 
>points on the documentation. That is something we can very easily control.
>
>How much cheaper is hydrogen to buy than helium? You know... we 
>could make our own hydrogen. I don't know how you compress it and 
>make it safe, but all it takes to make it is stick an anode and 
>cathode in a bowl of water. Hydrogen and oxygen will bubble off.
>
>I have no idea how much electricity it would take... but electricity 
>is crazy cheap.
>
>Steve
>
>On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 1:11 AM, 
><<mailto:telmnstr at 757.org>telmnstr at 757.org> wrote:
>* Magnetometer - tell the direction
>* GPS/altimeter -tell altitude
>*Wiki page - to state what we did (needs to be replicated in kits if we win)
>* cam
>* test
>* under 4 lb and under 300 umm
>miss anything
>
>
>Remember, every dollar above $150 counts against you, and $250 is the maximum.
>
>Last year, I think the helium and balloon alone ran $100+. And only 
>counted the helium we used, the actual cost was over $100 for the gas alone.
>
>We looked at offloading some of it into an aluminum 80cuft scuba 
>tank I had. I randomly had an adaptor for filling a specific scuba 
>tank with pure o2 from a large tank which looked like it would do 
>the trick, but wisely the "K valve" fitting was sized differently. 
>Most likely it's a cautionary thing where it's sized different for 
>each gas so they can't be mixed up. So we weren't able to safely 
>save any of the excess purchased helium. This time around I think 
>balloon gas would be advisable.
>
>I'm really for dropping off at the needed height, and playing the game to win.
>
>Remember, it's a challenge to meet the goals of the contest. Those 
>are the goals.
>
>HacDC followed up their contest entry with launches that carried the 
>cool experamentative payloads with things like high definition video cameras.
>
>Another idea might be more of a schedule for the pictures to 
>conserve battery power.
>
>Battery was a large cost as well. Last one took 4x lithium batteries.
>
>
>
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>If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be research.
>
>
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>If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be research.
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