Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #1 24-03-2009, 09:50 AM

Wow - pretty enterprising kids!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...d-balloon.html

Quote:

Proving that you don't need Google's billions or the BBC weather centre's resources, the four Spanish students managed to send a camera-operated weather balloon into the stratosphere.

Taking atmospheric readings and photographs 20 miles above the ground, the Meteotek team of IES La Bisbal school in Catalonia completed their incredible experiment at the end of February this year.

...(more at link posted above)...

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/sets/

BerrieK · #2 24-03-2009, 10:11 AM

"Proving that you don't need Google's billions or the BBC weather centre's resources, the four Spanish students managed to send a camera-operated weather balloon into the stratosphere"

Fantastic stuff.

But they DID utilise Google Earth to monitor their project in vivo (as such).

Either way this is the stuff of future scientists.

Thanks for posting this Chris.

lacad01 (Adam) · #3 24-03-2009, 03:05 PM

Quite an enjoyable article.
Wish I had science teachers like that back when I was at school

Would be interesting to know what sort of "official" hoops they had to jump through to get the end goal, i.e. ensuring it wouldn't be in the path of any aircraft, etc

But those photos are amazing!

OneOfOne (Trevor) · #4 25-03-2009, 08:32 AM

Using a 56 pound camera....surely they could have found something lighter

higginsdj · #5 25-03-2009, 09:00 AM

"At over 100,000ft the balloon lost its inflation and the equipment was returned to the earth. "

How was it returned to earth? If it was freefall then I would say it is a pretty irresponsible project.......

Cheers

David

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #6 25-03-2009, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by higginsdj

"At over 100,000ft the balloon lost its inflation and the equipment was returned to the earth. "

How was it returned to earth? If it was freefall then I would say it is a pretty irresponsible project.......

Cheers

David

Uhmm... don't know whether you've heard of them yet, but a really cool "return to earth" thingy called a parachute was invented a while back... they protect things like cameras from smashing into the ground.

Irresponsible? I'd say inspirational.

erick (Eric) · #7 25-03-2009, 01:14 PM

Perhaps our Spanish-speaking readers could check the team's site and get the facts for us. How did it descend? (The photos don't show major damage at the "drop" zone.) What was under the flight path?

http://teslabs.com/meteotek08/

Babelfish didn't do a particularly good job of translating for me

higginsdj · #8 26-03-2009, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Uhmm... don't know whether you've heard of them yet, but a really cool "return to earth" thingy called a parachute was invented a while back... they protect things like cameras from smashing into the ground.

Irresponsible? I'd say inspirational.

Yes, one can assume they used parachutes but parachutes don't work at 100,000 feet and auto opening parachutes are their own technical achievement - particularly if they were also able to fit the entire mechanism inside the 1.5kg package weight .........

My point is that 'ordinary' people do things often without thinking about the consequences - they focus on what they want to achieve only. It is not uncommon for school based experiments to go down this line (particularly since they wanted to do it on the cheap) - great when all works out well and no-one is hurt but I hold my praise until I can see the full picture.

If it was done with care and safety in mind then I agree - inspirational. I just find it interesting that the report was relatively detailed in every way except how they got the package back. I would have thought that that would be as interesting as getting it up there in the first place since it is typically a much more difficult task to recover them (just ask our space agencies)

Cheers

David

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #9 26-03-2009, 07:57 AM

Quote:

My point is that 'ordinary' people do things often without thinking about the consequences - they focus on what they want to achieve only. It is not uncommon for school based experiments to go down this line - great when all works out well and no-one is hurt but I hold my praise until I can see the full picture.

Yup - lets all just tow the PC line and not allow anything unless the committee has deemed it watered down enough to be safe.

If safety" was our species main concern wed still be up in the trees.

higginsdj · #10 26-03-2009, 08:01 AM

So in your view anything goes - who cares who gets hurt in the process?

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #11 26-03-2009, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by higginsdj

So in your view anything goes - who cares who gets hurt in the process?

We're not talking about this being done in the middle of Parammata or Hunters Hill. Catelonia is a mountainous region with very few residents and no dense population centres. I'm sure that their authorities were involved - and especially to clear them for entry into and through the aircraft corridor. Why do you assume that because the article didn't divulge their procedure that they had none?

I just don't think that safety should be the overriding factor in everything we do. Risk management is part of the learning process, and without it we learn nothing. I don't remember the space program being cancelled before it started because a mishap might see a rocket crash land on a house on Cocoa Beach. It'd be a hell of a lot more damaging than a cardboard box.

These Spanish kids are going to grow up energised and thirsty for knowledge. They're not going to be the ones that say "my dad wouldn't let me". Good on them.

Kal (Andrew) · #12 26-03-2009, 08:23 AM

If you'd had a look at the photos you can see a small parachute device between the baloon and the camera package. The whole think only weighed 1.5 kilos.

higginsdj · #13 26-03-2009, 08:28 AM

Granted this is just a 'what if' arguement but lets say they didn't take adequate safety steps.

1. They had no control over the flight
2. They had no control over where the package would land

A 1.5kg package travelling at Terminal velocity will kill someone if it hits them. It will kill anyone in a vehicle if it struck the vehicle at speed on a highway. Yes, the probability is extrememly low BUT it is not the right of the teacher or school kids to make that call and praising someone for an achievement and the luck to get away with it only promotes others to try their hand at it with equal disregard for others safety.

I agree, "these Spanish kids are going to grow up energised and thirsty for knowledge" - and probably not care who gets hurt in the process!

Again - this is just a 'what if' situation - I'm not saying that it applies to this specific case.

My view is that safety has to be an overriding factor - other peoples safety. Are school kids in a position to adequately judge this? Big answer is no - just look at the number of under 21's who kill themselves (and others) on the roads doing stupid things (ie not accidents)

Cheers

higginsdj · #14 26-03-2009, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kal

If you'd had a look at the photos you can see a small parachute device between the baloon and the camera package. The whole think only weighed 1.5 kilos.

Many thanks for the link. They did the right thing and I agree now that it was an inspirational effort.

Cheers

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #15 26-03-2009, 08:38 AM

Thanks Andrew - you beat me to it.

This package didn't have to suffer re-entry - so an internally stored parachute system coupled to an altimiter obviously wasn't necessary. You leave a drogue chute out and it just catches the air when it's dense enough. Not hard to think of, I wouldn't have thought, and I've assumed that this be the case before the whole debate got going.

Quote:

Are school kids in a position to adequately judge this?

No - definitely not! The teachers were heavily involved in this exercise. As they should have been. The kids did the work under strict supervision.

theodog (Jeff) · #16 26-03-2009, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by higginsdj

Granted this is just a 'what if' arguement but lets say they didn't take adequate safety steps.

.........

My view is that safety has to be an overriding factor - other peoples safety. Are school kids in a position to adequately judge this? Big answer is no - just look at the number of under 21's who kill themselves (and others) on the roads doing stupid things (ie not accidents)

Cheers

I'm not sure about the Spanish Ed system, but here in NSW we have something similar to this in the syllabus';-

H16. justifies positive values about and attitude towards both the living and non-living components of the environment, ethical behaviour and a desire for critical evaluation of the consequences of the applications of science.

So it forms part of the investigation design process.