SpaceBalloon. Father & Son send homemade capsule to space and back!

[MistaChin]

This is pretty sick. A father and son send a homemade capsule into outer space and back. They strapped a video camera onto it and the result is pretty fascinating!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDIYX_kj0iE

[DumpInfo]

It is a neat idea but jus....your weird. ;) :gone

[MistaChin]

What can I say, I love science!

[DumpInfo]

:chuckle nah it's cool if you dig it.

[sp3GT]

Pretty Cool if you ask me, so it went up and made it back down ??

[thanu31]

cool!
i guess they used the iphone to track where it landed?

[Thrizzl3]

ballin

[cwp_sedan]

This is pretty sick. Very impressive. :thumbsup

I'm surprised the batteries didn't die because it was so high (cold temps). Also I may ruin the cool part of this but it could have killed someone on the way down lol.

[Nick]

wow, so even above the atmosphere there is still gravity? and there's wind in space? as spock would say....fascinating =]

[XTOTHEL]

no one else thought of balloon boy?

[cwp_sedan]

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/10/20/us-dad-sends-iphone-4-space/


In a move that's guaranteed to have geeks the globe over smacking their foreheads and asking, "Why didn't I think of that?!", a New York man has become a legend in kitchen-table space exploration - by sending his iPhone 4 into space and capturing the incredible journey on video.

A condensed version of the eye-popping HD footage can be found here, at the home of the so-called Brooklyn Space Program.

Founder member Luke Geissbühler and his son achieved the feat by attaching an iPhone 4 to a weather balloon and sending it up through the stratosphere - braving winds of up to 100mph on its trip.

Launched in August from Newburgh, upstate New York, the weather balloon expanded as it rose due to the lack of atmospheric pressure.

When the phone reached a staggering 19 miles above the earth's surface, capturing pictures of the planet's curved atmosphere, the balloons eventually burst, sending the smartphone hurtling back down to earth at speeds of up to 150mph, protected only by a home-made protective housing attached to a parachute - and capturing the perilous descent as it fell.

Back on the ground, the task was on to recover the phone from the GPS coordinates it broadcast. Due to a combination of wind patterns, the phone's almost vertical trajectory saw it come down just 30 miles north of the launch site - though the camera didn't manage to capture the final moments before it hit the ground, its batteries finally succumbing to the cold after 100 minutes of filming, a mere two minutes from landing.

Geissbühler and his son found the returned spacecraft hanging in a tree, located using the 'find my phone' feature of Apple's MobileMe.

Geissbühler is currently taking pre-orders for a how-to book to teach harried parents how to make their offspring's ultimate dreams come true. Weather balloon manufacturers the world over will be wishing him a big thank you for that - though air traffic controllers, we imagine, may not be quite so pleased.

You can buy a copy of the full epic flight video on DVD or download for $25 from the Brooklyn Space Project's web site.

[MistaChin]

Thanks Ryan.

This is an amazing feat and really publicizes the features of the iphone. Let's see blackberry do that! :P

[Nextmod]

nice.

[Sales 101]

And if Nasa was to send up that ballon it would cost tax payers a Billion Dollars!

[optiklenz13]

Thanks Ryan.

This is an amazing feat and really publicizes the features of the iphone. Let's see blackberry do that! :P

It's quote worthy, this should be on the iphone vs. bb thread..

TAKE THAT!! LMAO!!!

:gone

[Cardinal Fang]

Thanks Ryan.

This is an amazing feat and really publicizes the features of the iphone. Let's see blackberry do that! :P

Ah yes the iphone. Apple can make it to survive a "space" flight but they can't find a way to get an accurate signal reading. :chuckle

Wait for the rush of moron's sending electronic devices into space without nearly the luck this guy had. I predict a rainstorm of electronic devices in the near future. I look forward to VIVID sending the first "dildo" into space.

[Zoom Zoom Boy]

... I look forward to VIVID sending the first "dildo" into space.

With, or sans Amish Midget attached?

[towelsnap]

wonder what would happen if it rained no more Iphone lol.... neat video the camera must have had some good batteries !

[philipfreire]

how is it possible? doesn't shit burn up in our atmosphere on re-entry?

[cwp_sedan]

how is it possible? doesn't shit burn up in our atmosphere on re-entry?

I doubt it left the atmosphere.

[philipfreire]

I doubt it left the atmosphere.

then it didnt real go to space, did it?

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/52281main_earth_atmosphere.gif

I wonder how far up it got before.. POP. any pros here know?

[Thrizzl3]

then it didnt real go to space, did it?

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/52281main_earth_atmosphere.gif

I wonder how far up it got before.. POP. any pros here know?

Duck Phil why do you have to be so damn scientific..i bet if you filled yourself with helium you could be a balloon too :D

[philipfreire]

Duck Phil why do you have to be so damn scientific..i bet if you filled you filled yourself with helium you could be a balloon too :D

:pofl

[TokyoKiller]

then it didnt real go to space, did it?

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/52281main_earth_atmosphere.gif

I wonder how far up it got before.. POP. any pros here know?

If they had an altimeter app installed on the phone running in the background they may have been able to find out approximately how high it went, but unfortunately that wasn't thought of I guess =]

This is amazing actually, I kinda want to do it my self now lol.

iPhones are amazing, I don't care what people say. They can do some pretty neat stuff if you know what you are doing =P

[SSmoked]

then it didnt real go to space, did it?

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/52281main_earth_atmosphere.gif

I wonder how far up it got before.. POP. any pros here know?

somewhat correct. it only registered 19miles above the earths surface meaning it was in the mid way in the statosphere. the air is too thin at this point in which the balloon had no more go. even fighter jets struggle to get any higher than this. whatch james may(top gear) he goes into the strosphere with a fighter jet and gets the same images as this balloon.
they broke the ozone so technically they were in space(no living life), but not in outer space(thermosphere) which occours another 50+miles out.