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A Cost-Effective Automatic Balloon Launcher--Visidyne, Inc., 10 Corporate Place, South Bedford Street, Burlington, MA 01803-5149; 781-273-2820
Mr. J. Michael Berrigan, Principal Investigator
Mr. John W. Bates, Business Official
DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-99ER82916
Amount: $99,990
By a costly and labor-intensive procedure, approximately 800,000 balloon-borne radiosondes are hand-launched each year. The development of an automatic radiosonde launcher would replace the manual procedure with a reliable and much less expensive process. This project will design, build, and test the critical components for an automatic radiosonde launcher. Phase I will establish baseline requirements, develop a preliminary design, identify critical subsystems, fabricate and test units, and conduct laboratory and field tests. In Phase II, the new launcher will be fully developed and rigorously tested at a field site under a variety of ambient weather conditions.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The automatic radiosonde launcher should have a significant cost/benefit advantage over present hand-launch techniques. It should be valuable to both domestic and foreign organizations, particularly in remote locations.