PongSats are high-altitude "near-space" missions that hold a probe or other project that can fit inside a
ping-pong
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
(
table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
) ball. The launch program is run by a volunteer organization,
JP Aerospace
JP Aerospace is an American company that aims to achieve affordable access to space. Their main activities include high-atmospheric lighter-than-air flights carrying cameras or miniature experiments called PongSats and minicubes. They are also eng ...
(which also provided balloon launch services for the
Space Chair
''Space Chair'' is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by Toshiba in 2009 to promote its Regza SD LCD televisions. The 60-second piece, following the launch of an armchair into near space attached to a weather balloon, is the ...
.)
JP Aerospace succeeded in its first launch of PongSat missions, with a balloon-launched rocket (AKA a
rockoon
A rockoon (from ''rocket'' and ''balloon'') is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and ...
), at the West Texas Spaceport near
Fort Stockton
Fort Stockton is a city in and the county seat of Pecos County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 10, future Interstate 14, U.S. Highways 67, 285, and 385, and the Santa Fe Railroad, northwest of San Antonio and southeast o ...
, in October 2002. The launcher reached 100,000 feet with 64 hosted PongSats.
Many of the flights have been funded through a
KickStarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...
crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance. In 2015, over was rais ...
campaign.
Although many PongSats contain things like food items, simply because schoolchildren are curious about the result, other missions include "multiple sensors and complex mini-computers".
It's been described by its founder as part of "America's Other Space Program," but also as one that relies "primarily on volunteers and helium."
According to founder John Powell, the PongSat launch program is very global, with payloads delivered to JP Aerospace from "Poland, India, Japan, Slovenia, Germany, Belgium, Turkey, China, Australia, Indonesia."
References
External links
*
Pongsat Guide*
PongSats and MiniCubes (pdf) Presentation at UNSW ACSER Cubesat Innovation Workshop, 2017-04-19/20Weekly Space Hangout: December 16, 2020 – John Powell Tells Us About PongSats and Airship to Orbit"PongSats: The World's Space Program". Michael Molitch-Hou. Feb 20, 2013. 3dprintingindustry.com"PongSats take student science projects to new heights", Ben Coxworth, ''New Atlas''. July 27, 2012
category:Balloon-borne experiments
category:Educational technology non-profits
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