Near Space Project - A DSLR to 100,000 feet
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 12:01AM | Tom S. ;)
When I went to college it was all about business, but I had one instructor that did some experimental work and was accedited with being the first person to 'ping' a signal from the PC up to a satellite. Actually it was before any PCs at all, he used the best machine at the time, a modified Tandy Color Computer. It wasn't much or much of a big deal... but it was a big deal if you know what I mean.
Along those lines a group of students from the University of Kansas are planning to launch a DSLR in a capsule and take it to 100,000 feet via a weather balloon. The photographs that it will capture will be used in a later research project. This will require extensive planning to accomplish this task as they expect to take the camera up to 100,000 feet where it will be very cold. The trick will be keeping the batteries in the camera warm enough to keep it functional.
Ryan, the head of the camera/imaging group, stated that the capsule will "also include other devices such as a temperature sensor, pressure sensor, and at least two GPS tracking devices among other things."
If you are interested in following the group of college students as they work through the problems associated with this project you can do so via their blog at GeoHawk.