Launching Cumbria's next balloon to the stratosphere
We made the camera mount specifically so that the gimbal camera’s gimbal could have free uninterrupted movement, allowing the full utilisation of the camera. The mount is made of balsa wood, or craft wood – easy to work with, and strong enough to support a camera like this. The mount will sit in the base of the payload box, and poke through the bottom. This will allow the camera to record steady video of the ascent and descent.
In order for our balloon to function on both the ascent and descent, we need balance. This is similar to freight aeroplanes, for example the B5 SuperGalaxy (below) needs to have
exact centre of mass calculations done to balance the plane in the air.
The below calculations work out where in the payload each camera will have to be placed to achieve balance. The heavier 360 camera (Kanda Qoocam) will have to be closer to the centre than the lighter gimbal camera. To explain simply, if a heavy person sits an equal distance from a light person on a seesaw, the lighter person will inevitably rise – but if you sit the heavier person closer to the pivotal point in the seesaw, and sit the ligher person further away, the leverage force (moment) will cause the heavier person’s side to rise. We caclulated that the heavier camera needs to be 4cm from the side of the payload box.
