DIY Weather Balloon Snaps Stellar Photos of Earth

by Jordan Yerman | March 18, 2009 at 10:44 am

430 views | 10 Recommendations | 0 comments

Using a $100 digital point-and-shoot camera and an $80 balloon, four Spanish students (aka "my new heroes") were able to send a DIY weather ballon 20 miles above the earth, taking atmospheric readings and snapping some unbelievable photographs.

Their homebrew rig survived a climb to over 100,000 feet and a subsequent descent; in other words, it rose to frigid heights and then plummeted to the ground... and survived. For a school science project, this one better get an A. Seriously.

Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort managed to send their heavy duty £43 latex balloon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent.

Below is a translated excerpt from their build blog- these are some seriouly clever individuals.

Finish the whole process, from around 8:55 am we start the probe Meteotek, leaving the few minutes of testing before launching it. The countdown was increasingly close!
Verified the receipt of data and proper operation of all devices, at 9.10AM we conducted the launch. A historic moment!