In June of 2025, I worked with New England Sci-Tech as a part of Apex to launch StratoSpore : my first ballooning project. I used this opportunity to use algae as a biosensor for altitude, and I learned a lot in the process. Wanting to experiment in the stratosphere again, I worked with Sam Flynn to make a reliable and flight-ready payload.

I had a few goals with this payload from what I learned from last year:

Have redundancy for tracking systems

Send images to the ground with actual details Last payload sent pictures 18x10 pixels

Use a more reliable GPS module

Implement more elaborate radio functionality Use my amateur radio license?

Use more efficient data packing techniques for telemetry

My plan for this post is to cover how I implemented these changes, along with documenting my learning process in hopes to inform my future launches.

The Experiment(s)

StratoSpore last year had two goals: examine how altitude/UV exposure affects algae fluorescence, and send images to the ground over a radio…