JBAS/STRATOS

High-Altitude Balloon System

STRATOS

STRATOS is an engineered near-space case study. We design, launch, and recover a high-altitude balloon carrying a custom instrumentation payload into the stratosphere. The system captures atmospheric data and imagery from altitudes commercial aircraft can't reach, and is later tracked and recovered downrange.

0 ft Target Altitude
2 hr Flight Duration
-60°C Payload Env · 99% Atmosphere Below
5 m/s Ascent Rate

Mission Overview

A complete flight system, engineered end to end.

STRATOS lifts a self-contained payload into near-space conditions on a latex weather balloon, logging temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity alongside high-resolution imagery of the curvature of the Earth over Guatemala.

Every phase of the mission is handled in-house. This includes airframe design, avionics integration, predictive flight modeling, launch operations, live tracking, and field recovery. Our goal is to turn atmospheric science into a complete aerospace engineering lifecycle.

Flight Profile

Linear ascent, hard burst, rapid descent.

A high-altitude balloon traces an asymmetric trajectory: a steady linear climb to a sharp burst apex near 100,000 ft, followed by a rapid initial free-fall that flattens as the parachute bites into denser air on the way down.

Launch 0 ft Burst / Apex ~100,000 ft Descent Parachute Recovery Touchdown
Ascent rate~5 m/s
Burst altitude~100,000 ft
DescentParachute-arrested
Flight duration~2 hr

Hardware Breakdown

The Egg Payload.

A self-contained instrumentation platform built to insulate its electronics, log a complete atmospheric profile, and survive ground impact for field recovery.

payload-cad-render.png
CAD_01 Aerodynamic Egg capsule — structural render
Structural Airframe A custom, aerodynamically optimized 3D-printed Egg capsule built to insulate internal components against near-space cold and survive impact forces on descent.
Avionics Suite Onboard Arduino microcomputer integrated with an SD card logging shield, capturing temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity (RH) across the flight.
Recovery Stack Redundant tracking arrays combining primary GPS telemetry, an APRS system, and a localized AirTag backup for field recovery.

Field Media

From the ground station to the apex.

01

Launch Phase

DJI drone footage of the ground station team executing the launch.

02

Stratospheric Transit

Onboard camera stills showing the curvature of the Earth over Guatemala.

Onboard still — Earth curvature over Guatemala, frame 1
Onboard still — Earth curvature over Guatemala, frame 2
03

The Apex Event

Onboard GoPro capturing the exact moment of balloon burst and parachute deployment.

04

Team Ops

Payload integration and field recovery — tracker hunting downrange.

Team during payload integration
Recovery team tracking the payload in the field

Mission Data

Flight analytics dashboard.

Post-mission findings from the onboard logger and recovery telemetry. Chart surfaces are wired and awaiting the finalized flight dataset.

01

Atmosphere Thermal Profile

Temperature vs. altitude — tropopause drop

Awaiting Flight Data
02

Barometric Decay Curve

Pressure dropping below 10 hPa

Awaiting Flight Data
03

Downrange Flight Path

Departure → recovery zone, Escuintla (near port)

Awaiting Flight Data