Australian Student Balloon Rises 100,000 Feet, With a Digital Camera 174
hype7 writes "An Australian student at Deakin University had a fascinating idea for a final project — to send a balloon up 100,000ft (~30,000 metres) into the stratosphere with a digital camera attached. The university was supportive, and the project took shape. Although there were some serious hitches along the way, the project was successful, and he managed to retrieve the balloon — with the pictures. What's really amazing is that the total cost was so low; the most expensive part was buying the helium gas for approximately AUD$250 (~USD$200)."
Altitude (Score:5, Funny)
See, you can get a lot higher up without a kid inside.
Re:Altitude (Score:5, Funny)
"some serious hitches along the way" (Score:4, Funny)
They should keep it fastened down a little better.
Re:Altitude (Score:5, Funny)
Confirmation is important in science (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Fuck Deakin (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, man. Too bad you didn't get the opportunity. But I'm proud of you for not being bitter.
Re:Altitude (Score:5, Funny)
They got the press coverage without the kid. The "schrodingers kid" was only a "potential child" in the balloon.
Re:So what... (Score:0, Funny)
And all this coming from a fat gimp who sits in his moms basement typing out 'Worst episode....ever' comments and doing precisely nothing.
So STFU until YOU come back with YOUR pictures YOU got from YOUR sub $300 balloon floating around at 100,000 feet.
Losers like you are the exact reason why the USA is rapidly going down the tubes and will soon be a province of China.
Re:Altitude (Score:5, Funny)
Google is your friend, and can help you find the answer [hawaii.edu]. Ok, maybe not a specific answer, but pretty damned close. :)
I suggest 10 24' diameter balloons, with breakaway tethers should one pop (no need to carry the extra weight of a dead balloon). If that can launch a compact car into LEO, it should be able to take a 6 year old high enough where you won't have to hear him scream. Well, at least until hypoxia kicks in, then it doesn't matter.
Make sure you strap a camera to him, a little something like the Blair Witch Project, except in the daylight, with the only backdrop being the sky. Well, you may have the incidental aircraft in the background. I think a 6 year old and 10 24' balloons may ruin a perfectly good flight. What exactly put that Airbus A320 down in the Hudson? I think the whole bird thing was just a conspiracy to cover up the fact that it was a flock of school kids tethered to weather balloons with cameras strapped to their asses. Oh, imagine the bad press when you have to admit that your A320 just ingested a flock of school children in the engines. Oh, and the mess on the ground. I'd hate to be walking down the street just to get splattered by that. I thought it was nasty when PETA threw red paint on me for wearing a leather jacket? That would just be disgusting.
And as a side note, based on those numbers, it would take about 80 24' diameter helium balloons to lift a 40' city bus. *THAT* would be something hilarious to see, but I'd hate to be under the landing zone. You know eventually they'll pop or leak. Some famous guy said "what comes up must come down", but I think he may have been full of shit. A flying 40' city bus could leave a little bit of a crater. I don't want to think of the logistics of filling the 80 balloons simultaneously though. That's a lot of helium. Just imagine if you got on the bus thinking "Oh, I'm just going to work", and then find that your bus is heading up towards 100,000 feet, and the driver keeps saying "Sir, please stay behind the white line." White line my ass, I'm on a flying bus!
Maybe sometimes you shouldn't ask the questions, because they may be answered and then some. :)
Re:So what... (Score:3, Funny)
(Kennedy Flight Center) NASA Spokeswoman Carrice Light stated at a hastily assembled press conference at a local KFC at Tampa Bay, "NASA has done this many times, and will continue to do so." Ms. Light also went on to say that NASA's projects to explore the heights of space are planned to go way beyond the 100KY Barrier,(short for 100,000 yard barrier), but that it still appears to be a major concern for NASA's administrators. "With the tragic passing of Mr. Jackson, 'Moon Walking' will be indefinitely postponed."
Re:Fuck Deakin (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Reported before (Score:3, Funny)
Anyhow, this is how most of the atmospheric layer and wind information is obtained --- not by satellite.
Seems like it would've been easier to put little propellers on the satellites to measure the wind than to have to fly a balloon every day.
And before anyone replies, yes, this is a joke. I know this wouldn't work, since the little propellers would fly the satellites off course...
Re:So what... (Score:3, Funny)
Where do you find those heavy photons?
In my universe, photons are light!
Re:Altitude (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And before the MIT guys... (Score:3, Funny)
In your face, Flat Earth Society [wikipedia.org]!
Re:Reported before (Score:5, Funny)
Australian Student Balloon Rises 100,000 Feet, With a Digital Camera
they have been doing it at least since the 1950's
Umm, yeah, I'm gonna need a citation on that.
The untold story? It was an accident. (Score:2, Funny)
But it gets better!
Several weeks later, I received an anonymous UPS package containing my digital camera! A quick glance showed that the Disney shots were still there, but there were some added shots that were somehow snapped on my camera's inadvertent journey. Some brief examples: (a) a shot of a 757 passenger jet with some astonished but blurred looking people looking out at Mickey; (2) a shot that showed a rocket launch at the Cape - from above!; (3) a nice clear shot that showed another group of brightly painted balloons that read "Visit Exciting Sydney!"; (4) a dim but unmistakable shot of the Shuttle as it came in for re-entry.
Of course there were a bunch more boring random shots of earth from way up high, but who cares about those?
I suspect I am not alone in this - has anyone else ever run an inadvertent "experiment" that accidentally took you to the edge of space? If getting close to the final frontier is actually this easy, it won't be long before we make it to the moon!