Homemade Spacecraft reaches an altitude of over 100,000 ft, films it all

[Qasibr]

Father and Son Film Outer Space, Do-It-Yourself Style (Video) : TreeHugger

"In August 2010, we set out to send a camera to space. The mission was to attach a HD video camera to a weather balloon and send it up into the upper stratosphere to film the blackness beyond our earth. Eventually, the balloon will grow from lack of atmospheric pressure, burst, and begin to fall.

It would have to survive 100 mph winds, temperatures of 60 degrees below zero, speeds of over 150 mph, and the high risk of a water landing. To retrieve the craft, it would need to deploy a parachute, descend through the clouds and transmit a GPS coordinate to a cell phone tower. Then we have to find it.

Needless to say, there are a lot of variables to overcome."

Just as the space-race of the 1960s was driven by a spirit of exploration and ingenuity, so too was the bold idea of Max and Luke Geissbuhler to film the darkness beyond our planet with their homemade spacecraft. And just as mankind was at once emboldened by the success of science and the realm of possibility was widened for an entire generation -- perhaps this father and son team can inspire others to follow their dreams, too, do-it-yourself style.

The video's quiet inspiring, really worth a watch! Homemade Spacecraft

Father and Son Film Outer Space, Do-It-Yourself Style (Video) : TreeHugger

 

[HAIDER]

Simple and amazing....

 

[Qasibr]

Some rocket launch platform that reaches the stratosphere with relatively little effort/fuel&weight, and uses the Earth's rotation to position itself over the target area would also be pretty interesting.

The complex thing would be navigating to the target zone properly, this would be relatively inexpensive, sort of like a novel standoff weapon with *alot* of range since it's energy would be spent maintaining it's altitude(above the detection range of most modern radars) rather than burning fuel trailing after some target, and then the Earth's rotation positions it properly, rocketting back at the appropriate time.

It'd be something like a temporary/disposable satellite payload that could potentially hit targets normally only reachable by ICBMs.

 

[siegecrossbow]

I think a similar feat was accomplished in England by a bunch of school children under the adult supervision. I think they used weather balloons for that.

 

[JonAsad]

Amazaing... Imagine if humans can have trips to the outer atmosphere like that

 

[Chogy]

I love this sort of stuff.

Weather balloons are an excellent and inexpensive way to get to those altitudes, but unfortunately no higher. Carrying a man is anther proposition, but still very possible. One problem is that you need a pressure or space suit much above 50,000 feet, or your body will evolve nitrogen bubbles and the bends will kill you.

Joe Kittinger still holds the record for the highest parachute jump from a balloon, set back in the days when the USAF was investigating super-high altitude egress. Here's some pictures:

They say he exceeded the speed of sound, the only human ever to do so in free-fall. I love those pictures!

 

[BS_Buster]

cool father and son.