Brooklyn Father And Son Launch Homemade Spacecraft

Adair writes "A father and son team from Brooklyn successfully launched a homemade spacecraft nearly 19 miles (around 100,000 feet) above the Earth's surface. The craft was a 19-inch helium-filled weather balloon attached to a Styrofoam capsule that housed an HD video camera and an iPhone. The camera recorded video of its ascent into the stratosphere, its apogee where the balloon reached its breaking point, and its descent back to earth. They rigged a parachute to the capsule to aid in its return to Earth, and the iPhone broadcast its GPS coordinates so they could track it down. The craft landed a mere 30 miles from its launch point in Newburgh, NY, due to a quick ascent and two differing wind patterns. The pair spent eight months researching and test-flying the craft before launching it in August. Columbia University Professor of Astronomy Marcel Aguera said, 'They were very good but also very lucky.'"

Comments

One reason why it won't be in the press...

[Anonymous Coward]

No 8 year old kids stuck in the craft after launch.

Cool!

[raddan]

This is a very clever use of an iPhone. I would love to see this one used as a yearlong high school science project. The ROI on materials is incredible here.

Is there an app for that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there an app for that?

Re:Is there an app for that?

[AigariusDebian]

There is one on n900 - it measures how high can you throw you n900 and how high is the drop, using the timer and accelerometer.

Hang on

[Anonymous Coward]

These two sent up an iPhone into the stratosphere which contains aircraft. They used GPS to track their device. They are obviously terrorists.

Isn't this

[JustOK]

Isn't this some sort of aid to terrorists? Combined with the Plane Finder AR app, oooooo spooky. They should ban helium.

Another reason you won't see this in the press

[shoehornjob]

Because the craft made it so high and the fact that they put an Iphone inside it now becomes a threat to our spy staelites (read"we may not be able to spy on our own citizens")and the NSA has deemed it a security threat and removed the story from most major news outlets. Sheesh this country's gone to hell.

Re:This again?

[nomadic]

You sure told that 8 year old. Kudos.

Re:This is not a spacecraft

[andy1307]

This isn't news at all.

Now if only the father had put the boy in the balloon....

Re:19 miles isn't "space"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about 65000 penises. Well, for me it's 65000, probably a lot more for you.

5 bars!

[binarybum]

The Brooklyn man was quoted as saying "it all started as a way to find out if there was really any place at all where I could get good reception on the iphone". When the phone landed there were 7 voicemail messages, 13 text messages, and 16 emails that were all sent several days prior but had managed to download at about 5 vertical miles.

Re:19 miles isn't "space"

[quenda]

In other news, Montgolfier Brothers are recognised as the world's first astronauts.

Nice try.

[Twinbee]

Nice try, I'll give it that.

But there are about 10 dozen reasons why this can be considered fake, and that the real motive behind the video is to try and brainwash the public into thinking the Earth is round.

Like as if. For those who are still in denial, this is what would happen if the Earth was round:
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/flat/rounwrld.jpg

Well, this PROUD flat-earther will NOT BUDGE.

Thanks for playing.

aid?

[evilviper]

They rigged a parachute to the capsule to aid in its return to Earth,

Actually, I think the parachute HINDERED and delayed it's return to earth, if anything. It would have been perfectly capable of returning to earth without help, as NASA scientists discovered some time ago...