Father-and-Son Team Take iPhone Up 30km on Weather Balloon
23 replies, posted
[quote=news.com.au]Balloon boy gets the space flight experience without dad going to jail
By Peter Farquhar, Technology Editor
From: news.com.au
October 05, 2010 1:43PM
Weather ballon soars 19km
Video shows sky turning black
Camera survives descent, landing
THIS is how proper father-son bonding over space balloons should be done.
With just a weather balloon, some polystyrene an iPhone and a video camera, Luke Geissbuhler and his seven-year-old son Max experience the blackness of space - and it didn't involve Max risking his life.
Or not, as it so eventuated in the case of the UFO-chasing Heene family which made headlines for all the wrong reasons this time a year ago.
This time it was all wholesome family goodness, as the Brooklyn, US, team paired up eight months ago to begin their mission to send a camera "up to the stratosphere to film the blackness beyond our earth".
By housing it in a polystyrene box and attaching it to a weather balloon, they hoped the camera would rise until atmospheric pressure caused the balloon to burst and send the box and camera back to Earth.
During its journey, it would have survive temperatures of -51C and would be travelling at speeds of up to 240km/h on its return.
The pair rigged the box to deploy a parachute and added a GPS device which would transmit its location back to their mobile phone.
Pocket hand-warmers were added to shield the camera from cold and the capsule was insulated, waterproofed and contained a note written by Max asking anyone who found it to return it and claim a reward.
Foam collars on the balloon were used to stop the camera capsule from spinning, allowing father and son to watch it ascend into the atmosphere at a rate of around 500m a minute.
And ascend it did, last week on a fine day from a park in New York.
After 40 minutes, the craft was dealing with wind speeds of up to 160km/h.
When it was launched, the balloon was 40cm across. An hour into its ascent it had grown to nearly six metres in diameter.
Ten minutes later, the balloon burst - 30km above the Earth.
For a couple of agonising seconds, the burst balloon covered the camera, but after it freed itself, the Geissbuhlers watched it descend at speeds of up to 225km/h.
The couple found it again, unharmed, just 45km from the launch site, stuck 15m up a tree.
"They were very good but also very lucky," Columbia University Professor of Astronomy Marcel Aguera told [url]www.wpix.com[/url] after learning of their success.
Sadly, the camera wasn't so lucky. Its batteries died at the 100-minute mark - just two minutes before it landed.
Nevertheless, while the balloon didn't make it to space proper - that would have required roughly another 30km altitude - the Geissbuhlers did achieve their goal of filming "the blackness".
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[url=http://www.news.com.au/technology/balloon-boy-gets-the-space-flight-experience-without-dad-going-to-jail/story-e6frfro0-1225934354666]Source[/url]
I tried to imbed the video in here but I can't get it to work, you can find it at the source.
Maybe it'll get good reception up there.
[QUOTE=Panda X;25268502]Maybe it'll get good reception up there.[/QUOTE]
That's what I thought the article was going to be about when I saw the title!
[QUOTE=Panda X;25268502]Maybe it'll get good reception up there.[/QUOTE]
Depends how they held it.
Wow that's pretty cool.
Also the news writers have great spelling.
[quote]Weather [b]ballon[/b] soars 19km[/quote]
[QUOTE=HeavyGuy;25268576]Wow that's pretty cool.
Also the news writers have great grammar.[/QUOTE]
That's not grammar :)
Amazing it didn't break.
[QUOTE=BurnBlackJay;25268763]That's not grammar :)[/QUOTE]
Thank you for the correction. Post edited.
Awesome stuff.
A weather balloon filled with swamp gas?
Next step:
Send Steve Jobs 19km into the atmosphere.
:siren:[b]breaking news[/b]:siren:
Steve Jobs sent 19km into the air, and becomes a satellite. Introduces new apple service: iSatellite. Selling millions in just a few short hours. Millions of Apple fanboys, sent to low earth orbit to praise their god.
[QUOTE=Richard Simmons;25270372]Next step:
Send Steve Jobs 19km into the atmosphere.
:siren:[b]breaking news[/b]:siren:
Steve Jobs sent 19km into the air, and becomes a satellite. Introduces new apple service: iSatellite. Selling millions in just a few short hours. Millions of Apple fanboys, sent to low earth orbit to praise their god.[/QUOTE]
hey um, that has little to nothing to do with this. troll somewhere else, thanks.
anyways this is pretty awesome :buddy:(whether or not what type of phone, camera, whatever. can you not be douche, thanks). Watching now :3:
That's funny, I'm doing the same thing for a final exam project, except I'm not going to use an iPhone.
That's really cool how they did that. Very surprised the iphone did not break or anything :P
I'll bet he got one bar up there.
I've been planning to do something like this since 2008. But wallet empty :(
also too lazy to call the police and fix papers and shit
[QUOTE=ifaux;25270501]hey um, that has little to nothing to do with this. troll somewhere else, thanks.
anyways this is pretty awesome :buddy:(whether or not what type of phone, camera, whatever. can you not be douche, thanks). Watching now :3:[/QUOTE]
You're an Apple fanboy. Calling jokers "trolls" and having a name like 'iFaux' makes it obvious.
Wow the footage from way up looks awesome.
They should sell the iPhone on ebay as "The iPhone from Space"
[quote=Article]Balloon boy gets the space flight experience without dad going to jail[/quote]
What?
[QUOTE=PaChIrA;25286203]What?[/QUOTE]
Remember the kid who got 'trapped' in the balloon a while back, and it turned out to be a hoax for the family to get onto some gameshow?
That's really really really cool.
The article is also wrong in saying that the balloon needed another 30km to get to space; it would need another 70km.
Wow , that is incredible.
I am suprised they got into no sort of trouble
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