This calculator is designed to help you find how much gas to put into a high altitude balloon to achieve a desired burst altitude or ascent rate. You have to know the payload mass (including parachute) and balloon mass.
Usage is very straightforward: enter the payload mass into the first box, select the balloon mass from the second box, and type in either a desired burst altitude in meters or ascent rate in meters per second in the relevent box. Pressing enter or clicking away from the box you are typing into will run the calculations, displaying the results in the box at the bottom.
The 'Constants' box can be used to adjust constants used by the calculator. These include selecting a type of gas (or entering a custom gas density), adjusting modelling parameters or entering a custom burst diameter or drag coefficient for your balloon. Click the tick box next to the burst diameter or drag coefficient boxes to use a custom value, otherwise the appropriate value for your selected balloon will be used.
Cambridge University Space Flight: Balloon Burst Calculator
An entirely javascript based, XHTML-valid, CSS-valid calculator to determine high altitude balloon parameters.
Written by Adam Greig for CUSF in March 2010. Maths derived from `burst1a` spreadsheet by Steve Randall. Balloon information from Kaymont Totex sounding balloon data.
No guarantee is given for the accuracy of any data included or produced by this program, use at your own risk.
Copyright 2010 Cambridge University Space Flight
| Payload Mass (g) | AND | Balloon Mass (g) | ||
| THEN | ||||
| Target Burst Altitude (m) | OR | Target Ascent Rate (m/s) | ||
| ↓ | ||||
| Burst Altitude: | 33000 m | Ascent Rate: | 2.33 m/s | |
| Time to Burst: | 238 min | Neck Lift: | 1733 g | |
| Launch Volume: | 2.66 m3 | 2660 L | 93.9 ft3 | |