Rising fifth-grader launches second weather balloon Max Kendall is now working on a third with the Medway Balloon Society
Aug 02, 2021 12:20PM ● By Chuck Tashjian
Max Kendall, age 10, of Medway works on his second weather balloon project. Courtesy images.
In May, we profiled Max Kendall, age 10, who started a club at the Medway Public Library to share his passion for weather balloons. Since that time, he has created a second weather balloon and is working on a third.
In early June, Max launched “WB-2” which only captured about 30 seconds of video footage due to a hidden trash folder full of tests, according to his mother Jennifer Kendall; WB-2 also required the help of a tree climber to retrieve the payload (where all the electronics and software are located).
Max then successfully launched, tracked, and recovered (using Ham Radio technology) WB-2.5 which Max called an “epic moment.” That payload had a great deal of footage with one small problem which they resolved in the field.
“Now it didn’t go perfectly due to some kind of automatic white balancing the footage ended up tinted completely red so we had to color correct it,” said Max, who will enter fifth grade in the fall.
“He is now working on WB-3 with the Medway Balloon Society,” says his mother Jennifer. “He is working on a cut-down system for that one, as two payloads [where all the electronics and software are located] have landed in trees and required the services of a tree climber. WB-3 will also have more weather sensors and fly with some science experiments.”
Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwvZ9ZvIOQw to hear Max talk about his project.
In early June, Max launched “WB-2” which only captured about 30 seconds of video footage due to a hidden trash folder full of tests, according to his mother Jennifer Kendall; WB-2 also required the help of a tree climber to retrieve the payload (where all the electronics and software are located).
Max then successfully launched, tracked, and recovered (using Ham Radio technology) WB-2.5 which Max called an “epic moment.” That payload had a great deal of footage with one small problem which they resolved in the field.
“Now it didn’t go perfectly due to some kind of automatic white balancing the footage ended up tinted completely red so we had to color correct it,” said Max, who will enter fifth grade in the fall.
“He is now working on WB-3 with the Medway Balloon Society,” says his mother Jennifer. “He is working on a cut-down system for that one, as two payloads [where all the electronics and software are located] have landed in trees and required the services of a tree climber. WB-3 will also have more weather sensors and fly with some science experiments.”
Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwvZ9ZvIOQw to hear Max talk about his project.
