About the Project

The Peregrine Return Vehicle is a project proposed by the Colorado Space Grant Consortium (COSGC) to be used in conjunction with a course through the University of Colorado in which students design, build, and launch pico-satellites as a payload on a high altitude weather balloon. 

Currently, the balloon carries the satellite payloads up to an altitude of 100,000 feet and is then cut away, dropping the string of satellites, which fall back to Earth via parachute. The satellites are tracked using GPS until the string drops below the horizon, and then the launch teams hike out to the last known position of the satellite string and retrieve their experiments.

Because the current system has no means of active control, the retrieval process is very inefficient and while reasonably predictable, does not always land in easily accessed locations, which can make retrieval very time consuming. 

The purpose of this project is to design a more efficient method of returning to Earth. Our UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), the Peregrine Return Vehicle,  will be launched by balloon, carrying all of the satellites within the body of the retrieval vehicle. The flight will function in much the same way as the previous launch method up until the point of balloon separation. At this point, the UAV will be engaged and using active control carry the satellite payloads back to a predetermined retrieval location. 

This project will greatly benefit the COSGC program by providing a known location for satellite retrieval. Essentially ensuring that the satellites will land in an area easily accessible by road and foot. Using this method, the teams can congregate on the specified landing site and hike less then a quarter mile to retrieve their experiments.

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Last updated: 03/23/07.