Teens Launch Balloon into Space, Take Pictures for Less than $100

By Urbanist in Science & Tech, Travel on Mar 17, 2009 at 8:03 pm

Who needs NASA? Spending less than it costs to take an airplane ride, a handful of industrious Spanish students sent a balloon 100,000 feet into space, tracking it by radio signal via Google Earth.

From 20 miles above the Earth’s surface, their handmade spacecraft took compelling photographs of the planet from above which they recovered when they found the landed balloon just over five miles from where they launched it.

The pupils’ incredible school science project has already caught the attention of the University of Wyoming in the US, and the Meteotek team keep those interested updated with regular blogs and updates to their Twitter feed.

link

Tags: Balloon, Flying, science, Space

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Johnny Cat
Mar 17th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Wow, very impressive. I’d love more detail, though. Especially on how the thing works, and the whole descent factor. Using Google Earth was smart, but how did it descend slow enough to survive impact?
Randy B
Mar 17th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I agree with Johnny Cat. Need more details, and oh yes, how about more than one picture ??? Where are the “compelling” pictures ?

Randy
Josh
Mar 17th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Can you even call 20 miles up space? I was always told the 60 mile mark is when you are in space.
Patricio
Mar 17th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Great idea…provided that kids don’t start launching balloons and cameras into jet airways. Might want to get an ok from the FAA first.
Charlie Flowers
Mar 17th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Absolutely incredible! I wish I had been this industrious in high-school.
Ola Amigo
Mar 17th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
I hear you Charlie. Cheers to this crew! That’s showing your stuff kids. Very impressive indeed.
Ray
Mar 18th, 2009 at 5:46 am
Good for them. But hams have been doing this for years…
http://www.eoss.org/ansrecap/ar_131/recap135.htm
for example. And yes, you do need to get FAA approval and let them know when you launch.
linty
Mar 18th, 2009 at 7:08 am
On that ham site they seem to have only sent the balloon 5000 feet up, as opposed to 100,000 by these students.

However it does look like there are precedents.

http://www.natrium42.com/halo/flight2/

that site is pretty interesting too. I think perhaps the cost involved here is probably the major improvement, but I’m guessing they probably just had to cross their fingers and hope the camera took some god shots.
Reed H.
Mar 18th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Here is the stundents’ website/blog, I think:

http://teslabs.com/meteotek08/
Oomi
Mar 18th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Maybe they can teach NASA a thing or two. Would save us a couple million, eh?
Xinavera
Mar 18th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
It’s a pretty impressive bit of work. Well done, “kids”. This particular quote caught my eye:

“At over 100,000ft the balloon lost its inflation and the equipment was returned to the earth.”

Now there’s a euphemism!
Anon
Mar 18th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Ray, on the HAM site they show it going up to ~97K ft MSL.
Christophe
Mar 18th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
I have the same white car. I just need a ballon and a camera now

It looks much more complicated than reading the blog entry. Those guys did a pretty good tech job.
liquidkudzu
Mar 19th, 2009 at 11:53 am
I don’t have it with me, but fark.com listed the kids’ Flickr page which had all of the pics they took and pics of their equipment.
Orjan Morjan
Mar 19th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/

If someone hasn’t found it yet.
Neil C
Mar 26th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I know of a high school class in Germany that did this a year or more ago following seeing some middle age American suburbanites do it HERE on neatorama.
Krys
Nov 1st, 2010 at 9:49 am
What kind of ballon was being used?

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