The big day...
The morning was spent sterilising the tubing of the HAB and making some last minute fine tuning to ensure it was airtight. Joe helped Tom to create the initiator from an electric match dripped in a mixture of nitro glycerine and nitro cellulose wrapped in a bag of thermite (aluminium and copper oxide). We loaded the HAB snugly into the fibreglass cylinder on the rocket, however when testing the boards trouble occurred! For some reason steam was being ejected from the sampling hole. The HAB was promptly removed and the problem solved but we missed our first launch window at 11:30am so we would have to launch after 1:30pm. This gave the team chance to trim the long wires, needed for the balloon flight, which took up too much room in rocket. The HAB was finally loaded into rocket along with the Mavs' tracking GPS tracking device and transported to the launchpad.
A couple of seconds afterwards we had to dart back to base camp in order to be a safe distance. After a countdown from twenty seconds, Olly pushed the button and the rocket shot into the sky like a bat out of hell leaving a trail of white smoke. It disappeared from view and there were a few moments of frantically scanning the sky until it reappeared as a glimmer in the distance. We drove out to the landing site and were met by the nose cone snapped 2 feet into the ground! The rest of the rocket tubing was intact... or so we thought. Olly and Paul had maintained contact with the HAB throughout the flight which had successfully taken a sample of air from around 26,000ft.
Unfortunately once the Mav's intact GPS and electrical systems had been removed it became apparent that the HAB had been crushed upon impact and was jammed inside the tube!
We recovered it piece by piece and managed to release the main section which was now half its original size. In other words, it was squished to a pulp. This was a big disappointment to the team but they took solace in the fact that the communication throughout the flight had been good and the HAB had died during a sleep command!
More rocket post-mortems today and more sample taking. At night time Mel was taking breath-taking pictures of the star filled sky with long exposures. Rainbow came up with the idea of creating light pictures to lift the team's spirits. We even tried to create different coloured lights by strapping gummy bears onto our torches.
In the aftermath of the previous days the whole team needed time to recharge their batteries. We took 7 samples on this day which was a team best, however the heat had begun to take its toll on us therefore we took every opportunity to remain in the RV and sleep. The students who were being filmed for the Sony Intel Rocket Project arrived late in the afternoon and we went to greet them with friendly gift of marshmallows. Before we knew it we were getting along very well and trading card games. By the early hours of the morning we were still playing 'Mafia' which would become the game of choice for the next few days.
Read the entries from Joe and Rainbow's blog.
Find out more about the scientists who lead our two winners on this expedition.
Joe and Rainbow created a video blog to share their experience of the expedition.
Watch the video
T +44 (0)20 7438 2500
F +44 (0)20 7438 2501
Nesta Operating Company, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833.
