Pictures of Space

tstowe

On June 21, I filled a weather balloon with 200 cuft of helium and let it go. Attached were a parachute and a capsule. In the capsule was a ham radio transmitter attached to a Garmin GPS, a SPOT satellite tracker and a digial camera. The camera was set up to take a photo every 15 seconds. It took over 500 picutures all the way up to 93,000 feet.

They are online at www.TheTalon.SmugMug.com/misc/space/test-flight.

Here's my favorite:

Candid Arts

Ok that is effing cool. How did you get it back? Well, obviously followed the GPS unit to find it, but damn. That thing could have landed anywhere? Or...am I missing something?

cbbr

That is super cool.

DaddyO

Have seen this kind of work before from our local guy. Always spectacular.
Awesome. Totally cool.
Admire your piece. Know the effort and work to get it. thumb

tstowe

Candid Arts wrote: »

Ok that is effing cool. How did you get it back? Well, obviously followed the GPS unit to find it, but damn. That thing could have landed anywhere? Or...am I missing something?

We use a five foot parachute. After the balloon bursts and the capsule starts to drop, the capsule fills with air and everything floats down.

The capsule has a ham radio transmitter inside. Just like this one:


The transmitter was attached to a Garmin 18x GPS. The transmitter sends a signal every 30 seconds (or however often you tell it to). The signal tells me the latitude, longitude, direction, speed and altitude. We read it with a handheld ham radio and a laptop running UI-View32. It looks a lot like this:


We also run predictions using a website that is pretty accurate. You can take a look at it at http://nearspaceventures.com/w3Baltrak/readyget.pl.

And if all else fails, I put the loudest buzzer you've ever heard on the top of the capsule. You can hear it buzzing from over a quarter mile away.

Panther

Howdy,

That really turned out neat, and loved seeing all the shots on the

way up.

Look forward to seeing more of your next adventure!!!

Well Done!!!

Richard

Very cool indeed. Are there issues with the equipment because of the cold?

tstowe

Richard wrote: »

Very cool indeed. Are there issues with the equipment because of the cold?

No, not really. Some people put chemical hand warmers in the capsule but I don't and I haven't and I have not experienced any problems.

time2smile

Just when you thought you seen it all.
thanks for sharing

Candid Arts

So how far away from where you set it up did it fall? What if it came back down in the middle of the ocean? Or...somewhere just WAY far away?

BradfordBenn

Also any paper work to fill out with the FAA or the like? way cool photos and looks like fun.

Angelo

very cool indeed.

so was the camera rigged at 90` to the ground at launch? did the mount swivel or pivot?

tstowe

Candid Arts wrote: »

So how far away from where you set it up did it fall? What if it came back down in the middle of the ocean? Or...somewhere just WAY far away?

Depends on the weather and time of year...colder months and it travels more. For the February launch it traveled over 150 miles. For May it was about 50 miles. June, less than 30.

We run predictions first. If it's going to come down anywhere near the coast, we move the launch point.

tstowe

BradfordBenn wrote: »

Also any paper work to fill out with the FAA or the like? way cool photos and looks like fun.

No. Keep it under 4lbs and you are government free... Click here: http://www.eoss.org/pubs/far_annotated.htm

tstowe

Angelo wrote: »

very cool indeed.

so was the camera rigged at 90` to the ground at launch? did the mount swivel or pivot?

Parallel to the ground. You are looking far enough off to still see the Earth. Plus the capsule swings a lot.

Eia

That is amazing and very interesting.