Two Sheffield University students have recorded a video of the Earth from the edge of space, using homemade equipment and on a shoestring budget.
Alex Baker and Chris Rose, both PhD students from the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, sent a helium-filled balloon with two video cameras and a tracking device up into the atmosphere, filming video and taking pictures as it went.
The balloon was launched from Ashborne, Derbyshire, on 17 December 2010, and was in flight for approximately two hours and 50 minutes, before landing in a field in Strethall, Cambridgeshire — a journey of more than 100 miles. The location, which is Rose’s home town, was chosen specifically, as it was predicted that launching there would result in the device landing in a rural area.
The video footage shows the balloon being launched at sunrise and rapidly climbing above the clouds, filming the ground below and eventually showing the curvature of the Earth’s atmosphere. After swelling to many times its original size, the balloon eventually burst, allowing the parachute to open and the box to descend back to Earth. It is thought that at its maximum height, the balloon reached an altitude of 37km.
The device, which was built by Baker and Rose in their spare time, consisted of a foam box, a parachute for the descent and the balloon. The electronic equipment had to be well insulated due to the extremely cold temperatures at such high altitudes, with duct tape and a small heat pad used to keep the cameras warm. A GPS tracking system, CATtrack, sent a text displaying its location when rung, allowing it to be collected.
The device, which cost only £350 to build, made it into the mid-stratosphere, where the atmospheric pressure is less than one per cent than that at the surface, and temperatures would have been around -30°C to -40°C. However, the lowest temperature would have been midway through the ascent, at around the 10km mark, when it would have been around -50°C.
Baker said: ’We decided to do it essentially because we’d seen it was possible. Although we tried to plan for as much as we could, we were still very lucky that things worked in our favour on the day.
’We were concerned when we didn’t receive a signal from the GPS tracker on the device during the whole flight, as it turned out only to work when on the ground. Even once it landed we struggled, as putting the co-ordinates into the iPhone only got us to the nearest road.’
Rose said: ’We wanted to do a low-budget attempt, so we couldn’t be happier with the results, and wanted to share the whole experience from start to finish with others. It’s also a good opportunity to show that this could be undertaken by anyone, even with a relatively small budget.’
Congratulations on a great result, and I love the animated video. Not sure about the Dec 2011 title half way through..
Bear in mind that to launch a balloon to this altitude you will need the CAA’s permission. Even a small box such as this could do enormous damage to an airliner.
Congratulations!!
I have been dreaming this for the last couple of years. Thank you very much for letting me know that it is doable and ofcourse successful.
An excellent use of scarce resources.
In my experience, most such attempts fail due to skimping on the heater. Obviously these folks got it right! In response to the comment about collision, airliners do not roam all over the sky & my feeling is that they are rarely encountered at 37km. A flying machine of less that 7kg can be freely flown. As a courtesy, ATC permission to transit an airway can be sought Judging by the way this balloon accelerated, it would have passed vertically through any airways very rapidly. And even more so on the way down.
Congratulations on your experiment. You learn a lot more from doing things empirically because you solve problems as they arise. i was lucky to spend most of my working career at a small company where we were encouraged to stretch the envelope.
Looking at the help wanted ads these days shows companies have lost sight of the fact that a bright mind can solve almost any problem. There was a time people were interviewed by managers and engineers who were looking for that spark. The human resources departments have much to large a say in hirings these days.
you are amazing.
you showed us if a people have enthusiasm , anything can be done with small budget but great intelligence and imagination. congratulations from Turkiye….
Congratulations for the amazing experiment conducted independently in such low budget.
How about trying from different place including equator and high mountains like Mt Everest range.
hearty best wishes from India
Congratulations to the students. Our local TV news station performed the same experiment on May 25, 2010. Here is a link to the stations articles and videos of their experiment.
http://www.wgrz.com/news/specials/Mission2sky/default.aspx
That’s a fantastic gig! It should give heart to engineers and garage inventors everywhere – Congratulations!
Interesting flight, congratulations!
You might want to make contact with the various amateur groups who have been doing this in the United States.
This is stupendous!!! It shows that innovation does work Mr Cameron so make it possible for engineering to expand. The resourcefulness and thought, I like the heat packs idea (wonder if they were gel types bought from the local Boots), this have given me some insight into the world of amatuer science which has received a great boost.
More balloons please, different locations, assemble data and see where it leads.
Well done!!
What a plucky shot at home science.
Condensation was luckily a minimum and a good pick-up.
Send a locator GPS up next time! [Epirb]
Can’t get over how lucky those horizon shots were whilst swinging around up there. No gimbals etc..
Good sports!
Fantastic! Great Work! Innovation and economy. We need more engineers like this. I wish you all the best for your futures.
It is an excellent achievement. Even though it has been done before, doing things like this and making your own design decisions is a great way to learn.
Local college students launched in 2005 & 2006 but the design project started in 2004 and are still ongoing.
http://www.rit.edu/kgcoe/electrical/meteor/meteor/Missions.html
You definitely need permission from the CAA to launch in the UK. The form is a DAP 1919 . I flew a balloon in December 2011 and found the CAA very helpful. I also found the YouTube video made by these boys a great inspiration. More details of my mission are at http://www.nsballoonproject.wordpress.com