

I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything - graffitishark
http://anyasq.com/195-i-sent-a-balloon-to-space-and-photographed-venus-for-less-than-$200

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adestefan
"BTW, our balloon just missed a JetBlue aircraft while on its way to near-
space. (It was still safe as we notified nearby airports of our launch)."

Does that statement scare the bejesus out of anyone else?

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sukuriant
No. Define "just missed". Flying across country (Florida to Washington), I saw
another plane flying in the other direction. The plane looked and felt like it
was right next to us, like .. hundreds of yards apart. Cross-country planes do
this all the time, so far as I can gather.

[edit: fixed typo, added ending to sentence]

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kirubakaran
What you experienced is a "near miss" and it probably happened only because
someone somewhere fucked up.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_miss_(safety)>

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mikeash
In my opinion, it's far more likely that he greatly underestimated the
distances between the two planes. People who aren't used to these things tend
to see a few miles of separation as a few hundred feet instead. Airliners are
_big_.

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sukuriant
This is an incredible possibility.

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cryptoz
30km up is not "to space". Not even "near space", if we take the Kármán line
at 100km to be the generally agreed upon definition. The balloon is amazing
and impressive but this headline is misleading.

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civilian
Look at the pictures: <http://www.thelimitisinfinity.com/> For laymen, it's a
pretty good definition of getting into space. And it sure looks like space!

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matthiasb
I really like their project. The pictures are amazing. Too bad we can't watch
the video on their web site (<http://www.thelimitisinfinity.com/>) from the US
(This video contains content from EMI, who has blocked it in your country on
copyright grounds. Sorry about that.)

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hammock
Reminds me of the father and son who got to 30km (and recovery!) with nothing
but an iPhone tied to a weather balloon - the video is amazing.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXquYhY7wo>

As others have said, sure as hell looks like space to me.

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mkelley82
Wouldn't this be more appropriate on reddit's IAMA sub?

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mikerice
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The site is a complete rip of a subreddit.

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prawn
Hard to blame the operator for trying. AMA and /r/AskScience are both pretty
strong candidates for spin-offs.

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yaix
Nice idea and cool pictures. Too bad instead of HD they are only in micro
format and embedded into a flash. Or did I just not find them on the site?

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eleitl
Definition of space is 100 km (Karman Line). You did not send a balloon to
space.

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chopsueyar
Remind me of this one with the weather balloon and the iPhone:

<http://www.vimeo.com/15091562>

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clobber
Maybe it's my monitor, but I can't really see anything inside the circle in
the Venus photo. This is a cool project though.

