Slashdot Mirror
Balloon and Duct Tape Deliver Great Space Photos
krou writes "With a budget of £500, Robert Harrison used cheap parts, a weather balloon, some duct tape, a digital camera, and a GPS device to capture some great photos of the earth from space that resulted in NASA calling him to find out how he had done it. 'A guy phoned up who worked for NASA who was interested in how we took the pictures,' said Mr Harrison. 'He wanted to know how the hell we did it. He thought we used a rocket. They said it would have cost them millions of dollars.' The details of his balloon are as follows: he used 'an ordinary Canon camera mounted on a weather balloon,' 'free software' that 'reprogrammed the camera to wake up every five minutes and take eight photographs and a video before switching off for a rest.' He also ensured the camera was 'wrapped in loft insulation' to make sure it could operate at the cold temperatures. The GPS device allowed him to pinpoint the balloon's location, and retrieve the camera when it fell down to earth attached to a small parachute."
Yeah, of course NASA is too stupid to think of using balloons.
Slashdotted, pics here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30721501@N05/collections/72157621244472915/
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
This has bee done for year by amateurs. I have been following these people for atleast a couple of years: BEAR
They have some AWESOME video of their attempts.
I wonder why NASA is just now finding about about this stuff???
(Each of the titles below has a link, so go check the document itself).
Hardware
Icarus Payload Hardware Setup Guide
This is a guide on how to set up the hardware in the Icarus payload. Currently the payload contains a Canon A560 camera and a custom designed PCB which does the tracking and communication. This PCB will probably be available from me should you wish to have a one at cost.
Timble Lassen IQ
This is an excellent GPS with a reasonable price tag. It uses the AND clause before shutdown making it perfect for high altitude work, provided your payload is not moving like a missile :-) The AND / OR clause refers to the manufacturers having to restrict GPS's from being used for missile guidance. Some manufacturers use a rule that is based on altitude OR speed and HAB often exceeds the altitude limit and the GPS shuts down. We favor GPS's that use the altitude AND speed restriction as the payload never excees the speed limits and hence the GPS keeps functioning.
Radiometrix
Established in 1985 Radiometrix specialise in the design and manufacture of low power radio products for rapid implementation of high-reliability, cable-free data links. Radiometrix is the industry's leading developer of off the-shelf, licence-exempt miniature radio modules.
ATMega8
The ATMega8 is an excellent microchip for this kind of work. There are plenty of good tools for programing this chip using Linux, Windows or the Mac see the software pages for links. An excellent website for information about programming the avr micros, as they are commonly called is AVR Freaks .
DS1821
This is a superb low temperature sensor from Dallas Semiconductor (now subsidiary of Maxim-ic). The temperature range is from -55 deg C to 150 deg C making it a good choice for HAB.
Trimble Lassen SK II
This is an alternative to the Lassen iQ and was my first GPS. If you want to work at 5v rather than 3.3v then this might be the GPS for you. Once again this uses the the Alt & Velocity rule before shtting down. This is basically to prevent people using these modules in missile guidence systems.
Gumstix Verdex
Gumstix develops and sells small, inexpensive, highly functional Linux computers for outstanding development and production systems.
Pololu Servo Controller
Futaba S3003 Servo Standard
Canon Digital Ixus 400
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
a balloon-mounted camera that can travel up to 21.7 miles (35km) above the surface of the Earth
According to most people, space starts at 100km. It's impossible for a balloon to get that high, because there is no atmosphere at that height - and balloons require atmosphere. Even the blog specifically states:
...pictures of the Earth from near space...
So, there it is. Not space. Only near space. Summary is wrong.
Umm a couple of college kids fom MIT did this last year for $150 dollars. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget/
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
I keep getting "Error establishing a database connection"
Actually, thats a myth.
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
The "space pen" was developed independently from NASA and NASA did in fact use pencils on several early missions.
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
I was more impressed when that bunch of Catalan Highschool Students did the same thing. They also had some fairly impressive photos as well.
I mean... whats the big deal here that NASA would care?
It has its own high altitide balloon program - where they do real science - for weeks at a time - not just cool pictures for a few hours...
http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/balloon/
http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/
yep. last september, a couple of kids from MIT... total cost was less than $150.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget/
All of our supplies (including camera, GPS tracking, weather balloon, and helium) were purchased for less than a grand total of $150.
So the tracking part was included, and if you read just a little farther it says it landed 20 miles away. I don't know home much gas costs around MIT, But I'm gonna assumed they didn't stray past $200.
P.S. I should have posted that link as well earlier, its linked on the Wired.com page.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
Even in the USA, NASA doesn't have "jurisdiction". NASA designs, builds, and launches rockets.
The FAA is the organization that tells people whether or not it is OK to launch airborne device X in the United States.
The FCC is the organization that tells them whether or not the mechanisms they are using for communications are permitted in the United States.
There are international organizations that coordinate efforts between the FAA and their counterparts, and the FCC and their counterparts.
FAA -> ICAO
FCC -> ITU
A lot of HAB projects look at FAA regs and say "yay we're legal" even when they're breaking a pile of FCC regs with their comms equipment.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Not to be a bitch, but it's "coup d'état" (in the original French) or often "coup d'etat" in English.
Yes, and the people working on it also wouldn’t have done it for free in their spare time.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Cory Doctorow: Little Brother
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Brother_(Cory_Doctorow_novel)
http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/