Photo for the edge of space on a balloon

[I.C.D]

G'Day All
Last night news (NBN Newcastle ) some bloke in England fix a digital camera to weather balloon on very long bit of string and let go up into the edge of space taking photos as it was going up . NASA have as this bloke for his photo and is examining them .The camera took shots of the surrounding English side then to the edge of space!!!!!!!!
Has anyone else seen this news clip I would like to know how he retrieve the the string it would have to been about 60 thousand feet or better ,and how he miss any aircraft from running into it ,as England has one of the most crowed air space in the world


Ian C

:eyepop::shrug::question:

[Liz]

Yeah, I saw that on the news too, amazing stuff and great photos.
They said he had GPS thingo with the camera to help find it.

[Lee]

try this

http://media.smh.com.au/world/world-news/amatuer-space-shots-amaze-nasa-1264305.html

[Kevnool]

Got an advert on SMH so i gave up.
Cheers Kev.

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Kev'

The ad comes first then the article!

[Lee]

Not a patient man??

[Kevnool]

Sorry Lee not very when theres advertising but it would of been a great story.
Cheers Kev.

[Lee]

No need to apologise to me!

[spearo]

Sounds like a hoax but his photos here are pretty impressive showing all stages
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30721501@N05/page35/

They're all a bit in different order.

I'm almost completely convinced but a part of me is still skeptical

so many baloons none picked up by air space control
operation of balloons at that height?
Did he have the image data transmitted back or did he have to wait to collect the hardware?
how did he control the ascent/descent? and they all come down pretty much in the same region?:shrug:

frank

[Nesti]

I'm okay with the images and how he retrieved/arrested the camera using a parachute.

There's no way that ballon could lift 100,000ft+ of string though...might have weighed over 5kg.

I reckon the parachute simply opened when the balloon burst (normal), then he retrieved it, perhaps by the aid of a simple homing signal, similar to an animal tracking device (tx the size of a match box). They would have been able to calculate the region where it came down...at least with a 5km radius.

I reckon it's legit.

[Jarvamundo]

No string, it's been done plenty of times... It's an MIT student regular experiment... Plenty of "videos" and GPS 3d maps (with altitude) on youtube.

Nothing new here...

HD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nojl3aiYBOw one of many.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTOohZhoKXg&feature=response_watch two of many..

hang around for the "slap" of the balloon burst... good times

although no longer relevant.... "air craft running into string... " go out side... look directly up...(or what ever shaped vector you want) keep counting till you see an aircraft pass your line of vector/sight (10mm).... lemme know when ya done. ;-)

re retrieve, chuck a phone in the box and get it to call you when it's back down... (insert any of 100 similar tracking techniques using mobile cell or gps or radio technologies)

Seems relatively easy to get a "breaking science" position in the world media? 2006 video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxX7YxslgSU)

[spearo]

Alex,
I never realized.
You're right
heaps of people have done this already...makes you wonder about this fellow Robert saying that NASA contacted him...that sounds like a bit of
"did I say NASA? I meant someone who has a friend who knows someone at NASA asked me about it" is probably more like it.:lol:

frank