Recovery and control system for near-spacecraft

Weber State University's High Altitude Reconnaissance Balloon for Outreach and Research (HARBOR) is a platform for student scientific experiments in low temperature, low pressure environments at the edge of space. Future instrumentation plans for HARBOR flights will make it impossible to fly less than twelve pound payloads (this changes the flight category under FAA regulations) and these payloads will be more sensitive to impact damage. This will require larger parachutes. Under a larger parachute the HARBOR near space craft can drift for many kilometers while descending through the jet stream from the stratosphere. Thus, it has become mission critical to find a way to exercise more control over descent rate and landing zone. A parachute ejection system will allow the HARBOR team to virtually pick their landing zone, open a parachute below the jet stream or release a second chute to further slow the descent in order to protect fragile instrumentation. The system will monitor the craft's position in 3 dimensions and will have radio telemetry as a backup to the onboard processor.