DIY High-Altitude Ballooning

The Ape With No Name writes "Ever wanted to see the black of space but just can't pay a cool 20 million to do so? Well, just build your own small-scale, high-altitude balloon like these guys out of styrofoam, duct tape, electrical kit and a 'consumer-grade' weather balloon. They reached an estimated 52000 feet, had all kinds of tech issues, including hacking code to fly the mission minutes before launch. Cool pics and video were taken throughout the mission. Next flight is in approximately 2 weeks with 100,000 feet the goal."

Okay then: are these balloons or UFOs

[Anonymous Coward]

Blips on Google Maps [googlesightseeing.com]

Planning on sending up a person?

[nizo]

If they want to test their balloons with a live person, maybe they can send this guy [snopes.com]; I am sure for a few beers he would happily go up.

already slashdotted?

[nietsch]

Since I can not RTFA, ican only speculate it will be much more fun that these guys, that lofted a package on a weathe balloon too, but let it return to the launchsite by using a glider. They got a few flifghts out of it until it presumably crashed into a mountainside. [members.shaw.ca]

If these guys are going for 100.000 feet, they will need a very big accesible area to recover their instrument package. given that winds up high may be a stong as 100 km/h, that leaves a pretty big oval your package could drop in.

Darwin Awards!

[zoloto]

Although he was just an honorable mention, lawnchair Larry was funny. Here's what he did:

http://darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid1998-11.html [darwinawards.com]

Not that risky

[LWATCDR]

"earth "randomly" is quite alarming."
Not really.
1 The earth is mostly empty land.
2. It will have a parachute so it should do no damage with it hits.
3. Even if the parachute fail odds are pretty good that unless it hits someone on the head it will not hurt anyone.
4. Noaa and the USAF have been doing the exact same thing for years and no one has been hurt yet.

Re:Another Cool Page...

[joranbelar]

You know, this may seem totally random, but what I appreciate about this post is the fact that he provides an interesting and relevant link to a similar story without resorting to self-righteous babbling about how it's all been done before and Slashdot is so behind the times, and how stupid we all are for not knowing about the previous stories. I've been getting tired of those posts :) Sometimes, it's just about getting the information out, not about who did it first.

Re:The black of space?

[RealAlaskan]

The twenty million's not to see the black of space but to actually go there ...

Enough weather ballons and a lawn chair [panix.com], and you could actually go there, or close enough [clusterballoon.org].

Re:Exciting but risky

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a bit of a risk - there's no control on the way down, so it lands where it lands - the closest you can come to predicting the general area of landing is studying the jetstream just before launch, and that, at best, can put you within a few miles. My college launches a weather balloon every few months to test out satellite parts we're developing, and we've had some close calls - one landed about 30 feet from a freeway, and another within 10 feet of a lake.

Really, the only thing that can be done is have someone on-site when it lands, or as close afterward as possible, to get it out of the way as quickly as possible if it goes somewhere it's not supposed to. I can't get to the website to see how they did it, but we usually have two vans with Kenwood HAM radios and laptops loaded with Street Atlas and APRS software; the balloon transmits an APRS beacon every so often, so by positioning the vans close to where we're predicting it will land, the can watch a plot of its path on Street Atlas and try to position themselves to be there when it lands (rarely happens, since the jetstream is quite a bit faster then the speed limit and the winds shift directions as it descends, but with their head start they're almost always to it within 5 minutes).

Fortunately, this is the midwest; the statistical chance of landing on a farm field dwarfs the chance of landing somewhere important :)

Basically there a regulations about weight

[wsanders]

This guy who did a similar project:

http://vpizza.org/~jmeehan/balloon/ [vpizza.org]

was very careful to follow the regulations. Not sure if the UT guys knew what they were doing in that regards. Basically, you do not necessarily need FAA permission if the balloon is small enough, just so one does not end with one's payload smashing through an airplane windscreen or blowing up a turbine. To quote above link, one generally doesn't need to file a flight plan unless the balloon:

(i) Carries a payload package that weighs more than four pounds and has a weight/size ratio of more than three ounces per square inch on any surface of the package, determined by dividing the total weight in ounces of the payload package by the area in square inches of its smallest surface;
(ii) Carries a payload package that weighs more than six pounds;
(iii) Carries a payload, of two or more packages, that weighs more than 12 pounds; or
(iv) Uses a rope or other device for suspension of the payload that requires an impact force of more than 50 pounds to separate the suspended payload from the balloon.

Commercial airline high altitude

[Senor_Programmer]

Back before they instituted minimum cabin pressure requirements for commercial airliners I flew LA-Sydney in a 747SP at 45,000 feet(cabin altitide 10,000 feet). Let me tell you, it's pretty cool. In the middle of the day, the sky is dark and the horizing had a LOT of curve to it. Thank you Pan Am

So, if you can do the balloon thing, GO FOR IT!

Re:I Wonder . . .

[HermanAB]

http://www.clusterballoon.org/ [clusterballoon.org]

Photos here
http://www.clusterballoon.org/intro/intro.html [clusterballoon.org]

Re:Umm... hazard considerations?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow... thanks for the incredible linkage:
http://members.shaw.ca/sonde/index.htm [members.shaw.ca]

This guy is an uber nerd, but the glider project just blows my mind.