Wow, Luke Geissbuhler wins the 2010 Father of the Year Award, 4,677,020 spots ahead of yours truly. How many dad's take the time out of their lives to devote this much time, energy, and intellect to their 7 year old sons?
Luke and his son Max attached an HD camera to a weather balloon, hit record, and let it float high enough into the atmosphere to make out the curvature of earth and see the blackness of space.
The results are breathtaking!
From the video:
In August 2010, we set out to send a camera to space.
The mission was to attach a HD video camera to a weather balloon and send it up into the upper stratosphere to film the blackness beyond our earth.
Eventually, the balloon will grow from lack of atmospheric pressure, burst, and begin to fall.
It would have to survive 100 mph winds, temperatures of 60 degrees below zero, speeds of over 150 mpg, and the high risk of a water landing.
To retrieve the craft, it would need to deploy a parachute, descend through the clouds and transmit a GPS coordinate to a cell phone tower.
Then we have to find it.
Unbelievable! The fact that they got their camera high enough to make out the curvature of the earth is jaw droppingly mind blowing.
I love space exploration, and will admit to multitudinous mental deficiencies in regards to landing crafts on different planets, but I don't understand why NASA can't mount a camera like this on a Mars Lander.
How cool would it be to hear the winds of Mars? To see the descent to the planet from space the way the Geissbuhler family's experiment did?
For more info on the project, visit the Brooklyn Space Program website.
Currently playing: Asia - Don't Cry
Currently colouring: A yet to be solicited Omnibus for Marvel Comics!
Proudly in my fifth Cola free year!
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