Comments on: 1st Successful Amateur Hi-Def Video from The Edge of Space

By: mikka

mikka — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:22:42 +0000

No, “sound” by definition is “mechanical vibrations transmitted by an elastic medium”. Like the camera’s casing. But I imagined Greg was referring to vibrations in the air, of which there wouldn’t be much at that altitude.
And NPD was yesterday.

By: Enoch

Enoch — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:53:35 +0000

Isn’t “sound” by definition “stuff” a “microphone” “picks” “up”

happy NPD!!!

By: mikka

mikka — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:50:02 +0000

Awesome! Amateur science at its best!
I would say that is not actually “sound”, it’s more like the microphone picking up stuff: the wave of gas after the baloon burst in space and the ropes banging against the casing during the fall.

By: travc

travc — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:22:24 +0000

This sort of thing is very cool. But I do wonder why they always put the camera facing sideways (90′ from down)? It would be much cooler/useful IMO to be looking down.

Also, how hard would it be to make the enclosure somewhat aerodynamic so that it keeps orientation while falling (maybe also being a bit more stable on the flight up.)

Anyways, I’m sorely tempted to develop some cheap hardware for doing balloon based aerial photography (mapping). Simplest is just GPS, altimeter, compass and accel (and/or gyro) for orientation, and a camera. Hell, there are cel phones with most of that built in. Any ideas on how to maintain a controlled altitude?

By: Bodach

Bodach — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:33:47 +0000

COOL!

As someone from the Northwest, I need to mention that apparently there are corners of the US which are very flat indeed. Thanks for sharing this.