Teens Capture Images of Space With £56 Camera and Balloon

[ucfgrad93]

This is an amazing story! Kudos, to all involoved!:D

Proving that you don't need Google's billions or the BBC weather centre's resources, the four Spanish students managed to send a camera-operated weather balloon into the stratosphere.

"The balloon we chose was inflated with helium to just over two metres and weighed just 1500 grams," said Gerard. "It was able to carry the sensor equipment and digital Nikon camera which weighed 1.5kg.

"However, when we launched at 9.10am on that morning the critical point for the experiment was to see if the balloon would make it past 10,000m, or 30,000ft, which is the altitude that commercial airliners fly at."

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

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5005022/Teens-capture-images-of-space-with-56-camera-and-balloon.html

[Eidorian]

I for one welcome our ballooning overlords. :D

[iJohnHenry]

Decent ascent.

[AppleMatt]

Amazing photograph considering all the circumstances. Well done!

AppleMatt

[apsterling]

Decent ascent.

I'd say the descent was slightly more decent than the ascent, if the camera was intact. :p

[pilotError]

What a great project.

As I was building corner shelves in woodshop...

[dmr727]

I hope they had a permit for that! The last thing I need is to end up in a big smoking hole because of some nerdy punk kids launching illegal weather balloons! :p:p

[andiwm2003]

how did they find the camera after the descent?

anyway, very impressive. kudos!

[yg17]

how did they find the camera after the descent?

anyway, very impressive. kudos!


I did that once in college. I wasn't really involved in the building, but more in the tracking once it was launched. The balloon was attached to a box that included the camera, and a GPS receiver that was somehow rigged to an amateur radio that broadcasted the data from the GPS and put it online (I forgot what the system was called, it wasn't a cellular system though. One of the guys had an amateur radio license so he used something involving that). We had laptops with data cards to track everything online while on the go. We were tracking it on Google Earth and drove in the general direction the balloon was moving, and once it landed, we were able to use a GPS on the ground to get to the coordinates. Our thing ended up at the top of a tree in the woods, fortunately the guy who owned it let us chop down the tree to get everything since we couldn't climb it. Ours ended up about 70 miles north of where it was launched from, I guess it was pretty windy that day. I know we got some decent pics out of it, but nothing that great.

[sn00pie]

Very cool! :D

[Eanair]

Mmm, beautiful picture considering the equipment. :)

[william sire]

very good....

[ravenvii]

I'd say the descent was slightly more decent than the ascent, if the camera was intact. :p

My thoughts.

[Raid]

I just had a browse through the Filckr album (http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/sets/72157614847488964/) of the whole thing (Assembly to Recovery) and includes photos from the flight in full camera resolution (3264x2448 :eek: )

IMHO this project was all sorts of awesome all around.

[waiwai]

outstanding! that was very cool :) congratz to those students, they did an awesome job :D

[Benguitar]

I don't get how when the ballon came down they got it and the camera back?

Wouldn't it of traveled many miles due to the wind?

[jonbravo77]

I don't get how when the ballon came down they got it and the camera back?

Wouldn't it of traveled many miles due to the wind?

To answer your question

"We travelled 10km to find the sensors and photographic card, which was still emitting its signal, even though it had been exposed to the most extreme conditions."

[SFStateStudent]

The makings of a ShamWOW Camera/Balloon commercial....:p

[djellison]

Not to detract from these guys achievment - this isn't really news. Many groups do this sort of thing, regularly. I contributed an imaging payload to a project by www.cuspaceflight.co.uk twice - including movies during sunrise from 32km above the Eastern UK.

http://vimeo.com/user331408

Doug

[MWPULSE]

using a mac as well.. the 15" one :D

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/2531755546/in/set-72157614847488964/

sorry just had to point that out hehe :-)

[MWPULSE]

Also, i looked through the other pics on the flickr some of the ones on the outer atmosphere were absolutely insane! I love space as it is, those pics were just brilliant :-)