Hey! I have an idea, let's send a camera into space!
So a dad, Director of Photography Luke Geissbuhler, and his son, build a small spacecraft with a video camera, an iPhone and batteries, and send it up with a weather balloon.
How cool is that?
I've seen a few of this kind of project, using a weather balloon to send objects up into space or near-space. The other near space weather balloon camera rig that comes to mind we posted videos about here, done by 1337 Arts.
Luke takes the near space weather balloon plans further by using an iPhone, which has built in GPS, making this a do-able project for many of us.
The weather balloon space rig is made of off-the-shelf stuff for the most part. You can do this. Watch the video Luke made below:
Thanks to WREXLABS and TreeHugger.com for telling us about this.
Pat Murphy
That is wicked cool! Thanks for posting!
Tim
This type of project is big in ham radio circles and they frequently partner with schools to do launches.
http://www.arhab.org/
Gerry Garwood
Very, very nice, guys! Captures in impressive detail a concise journey of imagination and real possibility from terra firma to literally the edge of space. I felt like I was the spacecraft. 'Reminds me of the time in the 1950's when my 7th grade science teacher and his two sons, my best friends at the time, discovered an authentic national weather service balloon which had landed near their property in southwest New York state. Too bad your camera lost power in that last 2 minutes. Please do this one more time with extra battery life so we can see the exact landing sequence during final touch-down!