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Taking Linux to New Heights

Posted by timothy on from the laden-with-detail dept.

JimDog writes "Literally. I've created a web site documenting the construction and launch of a high altitude 'weather' balloon, with a payload that runs Linux. The project was a great success, reached an altitude of 80,000 feet, and took some really amazing aerial photos."

3 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Re:not to troll, but ... by SoCalChris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The point isn't that it is running Linux, the point is that he made a really cool project that floated to 80,000 feet and took pictures, AND he got the whole thing back to retrieve the pictures. To me that is awfully impressive. The fact that it runs Linux was just one cool part of the project.

  2. Re:Old News by jmb-d · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, but you've been beaten by a few years and several hundred miles. Linux has already been in orbit aboard the space shuttle several times.

    But the debian gang didn't build their own shuttle, now did they?

    --
    In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.
    -- Yun-Men
  3. Re:Actually, this is kinda cool. by theCat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's more than a little cool. Just 20 years ago something this technically sophisticated would have sounded impossible. Heck 20 years ago it might have cost NASA $500K, taken 2 years to develop, had half the features, and suffered a systems failure 17 seconds after launch.

    We're jaded. We have no real sense of the size of things anymore. Rocket Guy is still talking about launching himself 30 miles straight up in a home-made rocket. Let's hope he does and he survives. But I'll predict now that the day after the event everyone here will shrug, bitch about his web server being /.ed, and say "it's been done before."

    --
    =^..^= all your rodent are belong to us