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Swedish Engineer's RC Plane Gets a Balloon Lift To Space
mask.of.sanity writes "A Swedish engineer has sent his radio controlled airplane to the edge of space using a weather balloon. It reached 33,100 metres before the balloon popped. The trip is captured on film and he has detailed the project in a blog. Amazing stuff."
Total flight time was 108 minutes. Total distance between launch and landing site was 101km.
I wonder how he tested the radio link. That would be the main technical challenge, I would think.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
End up somewhere, usually in the stomachs of marine mammals.
Marine mammals? Like US Marines? I knew they were tough, but eating weather balloons?! Damn!
"Where I live helium is ridiculously expensive. So I went with the much cheaper alternative, hydrogen. It’s also more buoyant, about 8% more. Which means a higher burst altitude as you can use less gas."
Bonus points for using hydrogen instead of helium. Hydrogen is not dangerous if handled properly and helium is a scarce resource needed for many medical uses like MRIs.
Also, in the U.S. lowly citizens aren't allowed to use those types of radios and power levels in order to have the range for remote control, video and telemetry. FCC regulations ban them.
No, they ban them from unlicensed use. But getting a license has been getting easier and easier every year...
Heaven forbid some work is done toward managing common resources like airspace used for travel and radio spectrum, so they don't suffer from tragedy of the commons.