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)."
So what... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:So what... (Score:3, Insightful)
No they didn't, not even halfway. What's special about this is that neither the summary nor the article make any bogus claims about balloons making it into space.
Re:Altitude (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course you didn't see the "PRESS" questioning anything, US journalists are fucking idiots. All they are capable of is reading what some under paid intern drops in front of them. This applies to most of the stories from all of the "NEWS" networks. Why do you think the US is in such terrible shape? The total lack of honest, well thought out information for the masses (read Joe six pack) is the major reason.
I've got a nicely aged 20 oz. bottle of Jolt Cola from ~2000 for any one who mods this up, as I'm lazy and don't have an account.
Re:Altitude (Score:4, Insightful)
Duh. Are you serious? That was an expensive project with plenty of manpower. This was one guy and his girlfriend spending a few hundred dollars.
Re:Altitude (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What would be interesting... (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow - what a complainer. Sure it's not that novel, but still cool and you just have to shit all over it. He built his own microcontroller system - that's not that trivial.
As for your suggestions:
1) a stabilizer would either drain the batteries or freeze up with the low temperatures. Adding complexity with little benefit does not make it better
2) might be interesting. IR might just show that the earth is warmer than space. Ooooo now there's science!
3) sure, put lasers on a balloon that can fly into airline flight paths. Now that's safe.
4) real time image analysis. You do realize what the computing capabilities of a microcontroller are, don't you?
5) why implement the complexity of a wireless grid? Just launch several balloons all time stamped and you can process the data later. Again, needless complexity doesn't make it better, it just makes the probability of failure much higher and drives up the cost exponentially.
6) something useful? How about a big floating sign saying ACs don't have a freaking clue what they are talking about?