Brooklyn Father And Son Launch Homemade Spacecraft 243
Adair writes "A father and son team from Brooklyn successfully launched a homemade spacecraft nearly 19 miles (around 100,000 feet) above the Earth's surface. The craft was a 19-inch helium-filled weather balloon attached to a Styrofoam capsule that housed an HD video camera and an iPhone. The camera recorded video of its ascent into the stratosphere, its apogee where the balloon reached its breaking point, and its descent back to earth. They rigged a parachute to the capsule to aid in its return to Earth, and the iPhone broadcast its GPS coordinates so they could track it down. The craft landed a mere 30 miles from its launch point in Newburgh, NY, due to a quick ascent and two differing wind patterns. The pair spent eight months researching and test-flying the craft before launching it in August. Columbia University Professor of Astronomy Marcel Aguera said, 'They were very good but also very lucky.'"
This is not a spacecraft (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, it only goes up 30km. And there is no improvement that can possibly be made to a helium balloon that can make it actually go any higher than Earth's atmosphere. It's a good accomplishment but calling it a spacecraft is a bit disingenuous.
Re:One reason why it won't be in the press... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:19 miles isn't "space" (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not even a matter of trying to draw a fuzzy boundary. This was a balloon, with no propulsion. By its very nature there's no way it can go above the atmosphere regardless of how you define the boundary of space.
Feeling of déjà vu... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:19 miles isn't "space" (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, my childhood definition of "reaching space" was reaching escape velocity.
Re:19 miles isn't "space" (Score:2, Insightful)
But we've seen these kinds of cheap high altitude balloons cover by Slashdot for about a year now and every time it happens, it seems to be picked up as a "new" event.
The thing that is really annoying though is that they all are doing the same thing without any improvement. Next time I have to read this story, please say someone floated a model rocket with an M engine up to 20 miles and got it the golden suborbital height.
If slashdot ever allows article moderation (Score:5, Insightful)
If slashdot ever allows real article moderation (and not that firehose abortion), in addition to 'flamebait' and 'troll', can we have a '-1, pedant bait' article? Seriously, at the time of this comment, of 35 articles, at least half are arguing over whether or not this is truly a spacecraft. It's really easy to shit on others from the safety of your parents' basement. Whether it has been done before is also irrelevant. This father and son is doing something. There's too many complainers to call someone else out specifically, but what have you people done lately? I don't claim to have done anything interesting of late, but I also am not shitting on what others have done.
Re:If slashdot ever allows article moderation (Score:4, Insightful)
People are mostly objecting to the headline, not 'shitting on what others have done', unless you're referring to sensationalizing this story.
Re:If slashdot ever allows article moderation (Score:5, Insightful)
There are plenty of comments that are filled with contempt "this joke of a 'spacecraft'". I think a lot of it is jealousy.
This. Jealous of jocks for getting the hot chicks, jealous of musicians for being able to tap out a beat, jealous of MBAs for making lots of money, jealous for real nerds for getting out and doing something.
Re:19 miles isn't "space" (Score:3, Insightful)
But its 19 mile ascent showed the plucky determination of the American family unit, and as such it may as well have reached the moon! That's what really counts here, and it's important that people are told about this feat so they feel better about things.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are sending an actual spacecraft to the moon. But, whatever... .
Re:19 miles isn't "space" (Score:3, Insightful)
Why can't people ever be happy when enterprising amateurs do something cool?
Re:One reason why it won't be in the press... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:If slashdot ever allows article moderation (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it is one thing to accomplish an interesting, even astonishing deed, it's a very thing to misrepresent the accomplishment as something greater than what it is. We have definitions of where space begins, and they didn't reach that. Balloons are also useless vehicles in space, so that should be another indication.
Re:Cool! (Score:3, Insightful)
Way better than risking a $1000+ iPhone that may not be recovered.
This is cool, but not original, The Register [theregister.co.uk] has something a little cooler in the works.
Still, major kudos to this Father/Son team.
_
Re:19 miles isn't "space" (Score:3, Insightful)
Let me know when China's society has enough disposable income that an average family can send a camera 19 miles into the atmosphere as a family science project - "for fun".
Re:19 miles isn't "space" (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm happy for the enterprising amateurs. I'm not happy for the guy that stuck a blatantly false headline on this.
IT AIN'T SPACE, AND IT AIN'T NEWS (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree, I don't know why slashdot (and other "news" outlets) keep running stories of this kind. 100,000 feet ain't space. It ain't even CLOSE to space (Usually defined as above 100,000 meters-- over three times as high), and it sure as hell ain't orbit, which is the kind of space people usually *think* of as being spaceflight.
And it isn't even unusual-- basically, this is nice, but the bottom line is that these guys flew a weather balloon, which reached the kind of altitudes that such balloons usually reach. High school students do this routinely-- hundreds of them do it every year.
Congrats, guys, good work, and all that, but it's not news.
Re:If slashdot ever allows article moderation (Score:3, Insightful)
Not only that, but think of what it's doing to inspire his kids.
Re:One reason why it won't be in the press... (Score:3, Insightful)
It contained the magic phrase "iPhone" and is therefore automatically cool and stuff.