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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."
Mirror for videos: Launch & Prep - Just Launch - Recovery
I ask that you please do not stream them. Thanks!
Here's a cool webpage of a group that did something similar. Their baloon made it up to about 94,000 ft. The site has a cool writeup with pictures and such of their project.
Getting to a high altitude (over 35,000 feet) in a manned balloon would not be a trivial undertaking. Or else lots of people would be doing it already.
- You have to choose between popping the baloon at altitude and parachuting back, or taking a huge amount of ballast to keep you from plummeting back to earth once your balloon envelope begins to shrink alarmingly on the way back down. If you don't drop ballast, you will die.
- Above 55,000 feet or so you need a full-fledged pressurized space suit. If your suit depressurizes, you die.
- Parachuting from extremely high altitudes is difficult, tricky, and very hazardous. You can break the sound barrier in freefall. If you don't get everything right, your parachute will rip to shreds, and you will die.
That being said, I wonder if you could take a group of people up to 100,000 feet or so in a rigid, dirigible sort of thing. Heck, around the world at 50,000 feet woudl be pretty darn cool.
Still, I think Rutan's approach is probably safer.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
My standard deal is 20% off for balloons and other educational uses. I also donate freebies from time to time for good causes.
Oh, and of course, it's all Open Source. BSD license. And the firmware's recently been rehosted on SourceForge.
The FAA permits these types of launches provided they meet certain criteria.
http://www.eoss.org/pubs/faaball.htm
Basically, total weight needs to be under 12 pounds. Most people try to keep it under 4-5. The FAA would like you to file in advance and inform them when you launch.
This site discusses the hazards involved on this page.
The excerpt of their short answer on the main page is as follows:
Is there any danger to aviation?
The short answer is no; there is very little risk to larger aircraft. According to an MIT study, the risk of a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle such as this being hit by a jetliner is on the order of 1 in 1 billion per UAV flight hour. The risk to light aircraft, in a relatively busy area such as the Fraser Valley, is higher, but can be made easily below the risk light aircraft pose to each other. For the long answer, please read further.