The Icarus project is a home brew project to send a camera high into the stratosphere to take pictures of the Earth from near space. The camera is enclosed in a flight box and attached to a helium weather balloon which lifts the camera to an altitude of approximately 35,000 meters above sea level. The camera is controlled by a small micro computer which takes pictures at timed intervals in various directions. Other sensors to measure temperature, barometric pressure and altitude are incorporated into the flight box.Website and pictures. Apparently it only cost him around £500.
3 comments:
Pretty cool eh?! I noticed this has become very popular last year. I've seen a dozen of these projects. Even high-school students doing this as a science project.
There is even a weather balloon challenge.
A few other cool space balloon projects:
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Would be great to make one that does not break and uses satellite or cellphone connection to send pictures back. Than you have your own "orbiter". Not sure how long these balloons can last.
Yeah I've also seen a few.
It's quite difficult to make one that doesn't break because it operates on the fact that the helium keeps expanding at lower pressures so the balloon keeps rising until the balloon can't expand anymore and pops.
So you'd need to reinforce the balloon, or let helium out at a certain altitude.
They have ones that can last a year
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