
Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon - frisco
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5005022/Teens-capture-images-of-space-with-56-camera-and-balloon.html
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d0mine
Here's their Flickr photostream <http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/>

And the blog in Catalan (see photos) <http://teslabs.com/meteotek08/>

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noonespecial
This image showing the flight and altitude path was particularly well done.

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/3337008176/in/set-72...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/3337008176/in/set-72157614847488964/)

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ars
So the balloon descended because it popped.

If they put a pressure release valve on it (one designed to work by relative
pressure differences, not absolute, and I think most are anyway), how high
could you get?

I'm guessing to the point where the difference in mass between the helium
inside the balloon and the air outside is not enough to loft the camera. But
with a light camera that has to be just about outer space, no?

Edit: And despite the risk, I think they should use hydrogen. If I'm not
mistaken, it's 1/4th the mass of helium. I don't know how much higher that
will take them though, but it has to make some difference.

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nradov
For balloon buoyancy it's not the atomic mass which matters, but rather the
gas density. Hydrogen is about 50% less dense than helium. Obviously there are
some safety issues, mostly with handling a pressurized storage tank on the
ground.

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ars
Ah yes, I forgot that hydrogen is actually H2 (molecule of two hydrogens), so
two nucleons per gas particle, compared to 4 for helium.

(And it is atomic mass that matters, but you have to count the mass of each
gas particle. In an ideal gas, gas density is the same for most any gas.)

I wonder if it will make much difference though, I think air pressure falls
off exponentially, so a doubling of buoyancy won't go far.

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critic
Hate to be a party-pooper, but if you can send a balloon there, it's not outer
space yet.

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jws
"of" != "from"

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paulgb
True, but I can take a picture _of_ space from by back yard on a clear night.

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arnorhs
The article mentions a twitter account with no link to it. Can anybody provide
that?

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debt
I wonder if you could strap a large rocket to it and have it launch once the
balloon pops. How feasible is that?

EDIT: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockoon>

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bprater
Anybody know how they got the images back down to earth?

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carlosrr
Looks like gravity helped:

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

"We travelled 10km to find the sensors and photographic card, which was still
emitting its signal, even though it had been exposed to the most extreme
conditions."

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dkokelley
I'm surprised that it didn't travel farther than 10km. There must have been 0
wind that day.

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kirse
Seriously. I ran a little experiment back one high school summer when I had a
helium tank laying around and was bored/curious to know how far your typical
lost-to-the-sky "Walmart" helium balloon would travel.

I launched about 50 balloons of varying inflation levels and groups (i.e. 1,2,
and 3 balloons) and attached ribbons to them and tied laminated index cards
with a numeric-ID and my email address.

I ended up getting a few responses and I believe one of the single balloons
traveled over 76 miles before setting down in someone's backyard. The average
was something like 50 miles, and that was on a warm night with <5mph wind.

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dkokelley
So then how could a balloon that traveled 100,000ft vertically land within
10km? Maybe the larger mass keeps the wind from pushing it so far.

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marvin
The helium balloons probably didn't fall back down to earth as soon as the
balloon in the story. But I still think that only 10 km seems pretty
remarkable.

~~~
dkokelley
Good point, the rate of descent might have made a difference. This sounds like
a good experiment. Let's release 10 heavy balloons (just like the ones they
used) in pairs of 2 at 5 different locations around the world and track where
each of them land. I'm not sure what scientific purpose this would serve but
it would at least satisfy my curiosity.

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danw
I would love to see an instructable of this

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jibiki
Would this be legal in the US?

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DanielBMarkham
sure

people do this all of the time -- its a neat experiment for kids of any age

EDIT: It's even more fun with a lawn chair and a person in it
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters>

~~~
rjurney
There is no limit to the karma you should receive for introducing me to my new
hero, Lawn Chair Larry.

'He was immediately arrested by waiting members of the Long Beach Police
Department; when asked by a reporter why he had done it, Walters replied, "A
man can't just sit around."'

What a quote!

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Lawn Chair Larry is the man. What a brilliant yet completely insane idea!

I especially like the part (not sure if it was mentioned in the Wiki article)
where commercial airliners were reporting a man in a lawn chair at 15,000
feet. I would have loved to be eavesdropping on some of those cockpit
discussions. Hey Bob! Say! Is that a man in a lawn chair over there next to
that cloud? Whah?

If I'm not mistaken, they've started an annual race or something in his name.

~~~
rjurney
Not only that... but a man in a lawnchair at 16K feet... with a GUN.

hahahaha

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10ren
_"At over 100,000ft the balloon lost its inflation"_ wonderful euphemism.

Oblig. Hack: Quite often I want to refer back to a particular phrase or word
in a book, and I have a devil of a time finding it. At times I've methodically
re-read 10 or 20 pages in failing to find it. I've wished I could just google
the damn book.

I can. By using Google Books or Amazon's search facility. I mention this here,
because I wanted to use an expression of Gladwell's in _Outliers_ , about
someone "customizing their environment", and then saying " "customize" --
using Lareau's wonderful term" on page 105. I'd misremembered it as "lovely
euphemism".

