Sending my new Canon camera 100 000 feet into orbit

[dtmcnamara]

*****Update 9/29/09*****
Well not much has been done with most of the people having a test this week and next week. We have been working on some drop tests with various designs of cardboard and Styrofoam. Once the bottom crash pad design is complete then the rest of the design can be finished. Once we get a finished design for the camera box we will post a few pics.

THANKS






Ok so a while back I read an article about a group of kids that took two large balloons, a GPS device and a camera and decided to see what they could get picture of. They sent the camera 100 000 feet into orbit and got some outstanding pictures and were able to track the exact crash location due to the GPS receiver on everything. Well it worked great and minus the camera and GPS sacrifice everything worked as planned.

Well I have decided to do it. Me along with a few fellow camera/tech nerds are going to be launching a Canon camera into orbit within the next 2 months. We are working on the GPS tracking device at the moment and trying to find a way to hard wire a longer lasting battery and a 16GB memory card to the camera outside the unit, in order to ensure the SD card stays safe.

At the moment we are shooting for the same 100 000 feet up the only difference is that we will be setting out camera to time laps every 2 seconds in order to capture the entire journey up...and down.

We are estimation a life of approximately 800 feet per minute. We expect the camera to reach its highest altitude nearly 2 hours into flight and then start its decent down to earth again. Depending on drag we will be looking at about a 20-35 minute free fall until impact so we are estimation approximately 4800 picture will be taken if we set the camera to take a picture every 2 seconds.

I will post more information as things work there way out but at the moment to rig looks like follows:

GPS receiver out of a Garmin
Canon SD1200 (or something in that range)
2 high maH 3.7v batteries
16-32 GB SD card
foam padding
custom hard wire for batteries and SD card
custom case to attempt to protect SD card (who cares about the camera and GPS receiver...lol)
2 giant latex balloons
lots of helium

Like I said we are still on the testing of everything but once things start to get closer and closer to launch I will let everyone know. This should be something worth looking at if all things go well. Hell, if it works good enough we might send a second one up there with multiple cameras in it.

[whiteknights]

sounds cool

[CHADbee]

good luck sir!!!!! if you can pull it off it will be so badass!!!!


link for people not sure what he is talking about:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget?

[Doppelgänger]

Doing a quick search reveals you can buy weather baloons for ~$140
Also found a place that sells 8ft latex baloons...good to under-fill to compensate for expansion as altitude increases. Also, if you want ot get very crafty, it wouldn't be hard to attach a parachute that deploys after the balloon ruptures (The MIT students did this as well, most articles don't seem to say this though) ;)
Don't forget to include some kinda of heating devices as the air at only 40,000ft is -70*F or so...imagine what it can be at nearly 100k ft.
Don't forget to check the location of the jetstream when deciding on a time to launch as you may have to drive over into one of our lovely neighboring states to our west lol
You could use lithium batteries to reduce weight and increase bettery life (if the camera used uses standard AA or AAA betteries).

I'm sure you've thought of some, if not all, of these factors...but it never hurts to try and help!

[JJSPEC Racing]

I believe free fall from the previous camera was at 45minutes. I might be wrong.

[dtmcnamara]

free fall will be around 20-45 minutes, all depending on the balloons we use. If we go with something bigger than the other student we might be able to get a longer fall, but once the unit starts to fall there is no ensuring that the camera will be able to get clear pictures so we are just really trying to slow the decent down more than anything.

As far as a heater goes, we arent really worried about the camera surviving at all. yea its going to be a $200 ish camera but split between the people that are working on this we are all throwing in like $50 and it will pay for more than everything (you got to pay to play).

I have also posted a few pictures of some shots done before. Hopefully we will get the same results.

[nsany(atl)]

you realize you could kill someone if it hits them as it's falling.

[Nemesis]

you realize you could kill someone if it hits them as it's falling.

hahaha that would be awesome

[Tarzanman]

You're forgetting about the subzero temperature that high up. The students who did it before used the same chemical hand-warmers that skiers use.

You WILL need them because batteries don't like to work in subzero temperatures.... meaning that both your camera and your GPS cell phone will stop working (resulting in a failed attempt).

I'm not sure what good a Garmin GPS will be if it can't transmit its coordinates back to you... are you sure that you want to use a GPS and not a GPS cell phone?

You should also note that the folks who already did this before made sure that they weren't breaking any FAA rules

[TRDwasiq]

:)

[quickdodge®]

Very, very cool idea if you pull it off. One thing would be kind of cool as well is if you could fix the camera's shooting position and have it take shots straight down. I think that would be badass as well. Later, QD.

[Doppelgänger]

free fall will be around 20-45 minutes, all depending on the balloons we use. If we go with something bigger than the other student we might be able to get a longer fall, but once the unit starts to fall there is no ensuring that the camera will be able to get clear pictures so we are just really trying to slow the decent down more than anything.

As far as a heater goes, we arent really worried about the camera surviving at all. yea its going to be a $200 ish camera but split between the people that are working on this we are all throwing in like $50 and it will pay for more than everything (you got to pay to play).

I have also posted a few pictures of some shots done before. Hopefully we will get the same results.



Let me say this again...

The MIT team had a parachute on theirs..which is why it took 40+minutes to come back down and land safely. Are you really planning on just letting it fall to the ground with nothing to slow it down?

[quickdodge®]

Let me say this again...

The MIT team had a parachute on theirs..which is why it took 40+minutes to come back down and land safely. Are you really planning on just letting it fall to the ground with nothing to slow it down?

He's not worried about the camera itself. And I don't think the SD card is going to bust into pieces on impact. The camera itself will break the fall and provide a sort of comfort zone for the SD card. Later, QD.

[oneSLOWex]

VERY cool idea!! keep us updated for sure.

[Tarzanman]

He's not worried about the camera itself. And I don't think the SD card is going to bust into pieces on impact. The camera itself will break the fall and provide a sort of comfort zone for the SD card. Later, QD.

Keep thinking that.

It doesn't take much to destroy an SD card. If there is enough shock to crack it anywhere then all the data will be gone.

I've seen SD cards go bad just from being bent a bit too much. A big enough drop while *inside* a heavy camera stands a pretty good chance of damaging the card enough to make it unreadable.

[Kasper]

The sd card will come apart. cause at that fall, its like takeing a sludge hammer to it. best of luck to ya...

[quickdodge®]

Keep thinking that.

I will. Later, QD.

[oneSLOWex]

We are working on the GPS tracking device at the moment and trying to find a way to hard wire a longer lasting battery and a 16GB memory card to the camera outside the unit, in order to ensure the SD card stays safe.


Just sayin......

[dtmcnamara]

the camera will not just go in free fall. we have been toying with the idea of a parachute, but we are not sure how we want to do it exactly. We are getting some parachute material later this month from a shop that repairs them and we will start to work with that.

As far as the SD card goes, we have figured everything out. The SD card will be hard wired away from the camera. It will have a quick connect cable hooked between it and the camera, this will ensure that if/when the camera brakes that it will pull and brake at the cable leaving the SD card in a impact safe box along with the gps receiver and batteries.

We have also been looking at warming everything, we will be using the same hand warmers that the others used, one for the GPS unit and one for the batteries and the camera. This will make sure everything WORKS when up there.

I will have a few rough sketches hopefully soon. Main thing is getting the camera, GPS device and then starting the hard wiring and relocating of every

Updates will come weekly.

PS- if this works, the next one we send will be possibly of two cameras, out the side and down.

[.93lude]

pretty sick, what does it take to make it FAA compliable?

[meengreenPGT]

Def keep us updated! I wanna see some pics from orbit.

[SPOOLIN]

pretty sick, what does it take to make it FAA compliable?

just keep it nice and far from the damn airport.

[quickdodge®]

just keep it nice and far from the damn airport.

Lolol. That would be cool, though, to be on the news because your camera was shot down for fear that it was enemy aircraft. Later, QD.

[joecoolfreak]

pretty sick, what does it take to make it FAA compliable?
Actually, to avoid FAA regs, the payload must be less than 4lbs total. Anything more than that, and there are a lot of regs:

http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/part101.html

[.blank cd]

Actually, to avoid FAA regs, the payload must be less than 4lbs total. Anything more than that, and there are a lot of regs:

http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/part101.htmlThis

[dtmcnamara]

like said above. as long as we stay under 4 lbs we are safe. Right now we are at like 2lbs. Depending on the amount of batteries we might be pushing 3.5-3.8 lbs.

WE WILL make it under 4 lbs. Dont need the gov after me thinking im a spy

[Tarzanman]

You guys have just been outdone

http://bear.sbszoo.com/bear3-4/bear4.htm

[quickdodge®]

You guys have just been outdone

http://bear.sbszoo.com/bear3-4/bear4.htm

That was posted on the first page, lolol. This was the inspiration for their project, I believe. Later, QD.

[Tarzanman]

That was posted on the first page, lolol. This was the inspiration for their project, I believe. Later, QD.

Not quite. This -http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-328198- was the inspiration for their project (still camera)

The link I posted was of a similar stunt pulled with video camera.

[.blank cd]

like said above. as long as we stay under 4 lbs we are safe. Right now we are at like 2lbs. Depending on the amount of batteries we might be pushing 3.5-3.8 lbs.

WE WILL make it under 4 lbs. Dont need the gov after me thinking im a spy
There not gonna shoot it down if its a couple ounces over

[quickdodge®]

Not quite. This -http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-328198- was the inspiration for their project (still camera)

The link I posted was of a similar stunt pulled with video camera.

Yeah I saw the video you posted. Not THAT was badass. Later, QD.

[HachiDori]

I want to see results! Best of luck to you!

[FlipKing]

I'd attach information to it incase its found before you get to it. Gonna ssuck if it drops in the middle of an interstate or somthing like that,lol

[thecrazyone]

haha in the hi def vid you can hear cop sirens at 3 minutes, thats hella cool, im waiting for you launch, it would be cool to see a local person do it, and then you can say you have done that which is pretty sick

[WTF?]

hope this works out for you guys, it will be awsome to see