Welcome to space.1337arts.com — Project Icarus, home of the original $150 near-space launch!
UPDATE: 8/7/10 We have created a forum. If you have questions, comments, or just want to show your near-space launch, post HERE!
UPDATE: 5/12/10 Check out grassrootsmapping.org! We’re helping citizens to use balloons, kites, and other simple and inexpensive tools to produce their own aerial imagery of the spill… documentation that will be essential for environmental and legal use in coming years.
UPDATE: 10/30/09: Want to do it yourself? Visit GUIDE, a compilation of detailed information regarding what we did for our launch.
Click Here for archive of updates
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***CAUTION/DISCLAIMER: Launching things into the stratosphere can be DANGEROUS! Please contact the FAA before trying any launches (even if they are under 4 lbs.) to make sure your vehicle won’t be entering restricted airspace and PLEASE check the University of Wyoming’sBalloon Trajectory Predictor(or a similar website) to make sure you balloon won’t be landing in the city/a populated area where it might cause significant damage. Also, be sure to test your balloon’s terminal velocity for descent before launching. We tested our parachute by putting eggs inside of our styrofoam box and tossing the box off of a 5 story building. We were not satisfied with the landing speed of our box until the eggs did not break upon the box’s impact.
About Project Icarus
We are a group of MIT students seeking to share the artistic aspects of science with others. On Sept. 2, 2009, we launched a digital camera into near-space to take photographs of the earth from high up above. (see “Flight”)
Several groups have accomplished similar feats (see “Other Launches”), but as far we know, we are the first group ever to:
(1) Complete such a launch on a budget of $150 total. All of our supplies (including camera, GPS tracking, weather balloon, and helium) were purchased for less than a grand total of $150.
(2) Create a launch vehicle without the use of any electronic hacking. We used off-the-shelf items exclusively (i.e., no electronic chips or soldering) to create our launch vehicle.
The results were fantastic. Our ultra low-budget balloon went 17.5 miles high into the uppermost parts of the stratosphere and returned 5 hours later. We tracked the device with GPS and found it some 20 miles away from the launch site.
Check us out on CNN, FOX, ABC! Click here to watch the Fox video, Click here to watch the CNN video. Click here to watch the ABC video
Project Icarus Details:
| Who | Oliver Yeh , Justin Lee, Eric Newton |
| Launch Date/Time | September 2nd, 2009, 11:45 EST |
| Launch Location | Sturbridge, MA - 42.12074, -72.06233 |
| Impact Location | Worcester, MA - 42.25504, -71.71943 |
| Distance Traveled | ~20 miles |
| Altitude Achieved | 98,000 feet, 17.5 miles |
| Helium Used | ~65 cubic feet |
| Weight | ~800g, 28oz |
| Camera | Canon A470 /w chdk open source firmware |
| Batteries | 4 Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA Batteries |
| GPS Reciever | Motorola i290 Prepaid Cellphone (“Boost Mobile”) |
| Tracking Software | Accutracking, Instamapper |
| Flight path | Google Earth kml |
| FAA regulation | Legal as long as payload is under 4 pounds |
**Below is a video for people who cannot access Youtube (e.g., people in China)
Why’s the KML layer called kkk? In any event, you can view the data without installing Google Earth by pasting the URL of the KML file into the search field of Google Maps. There are a lot of data points, so it may take awhile to load.
Hello, a really interesting experience to visit your website. For sure i will come back soon. greets to all !
Love the name. Project Icarus. Nice.
You guys (and girls? can’t remember) are awesome! Very impressive. I think it won’t be long before there are a whole lot of weather balloons floating throw the atmosphere : )
Great job. Wonderful endeavor!
You guys have taken “diy” to a whole new level.
Kudos to your team !
Hi!
Do you actually have a track of the GPS heights as well? It would be cool to see the actual path with heights in Google Earth or another application (don’t know if GE actually supports this)
i don’t care about the art thing I like the technic behind this pictures. awesome
Very good! A realy great Job!
wonderful afford and congratulations! just read in an austrian newspaper about it! best regards
philipp
http://www.ninc.at
web : video : 3D
after looking at the picutres in high resolution, i have to say again: simply amazing!
cheers!
ka
Great job. I’ve read you from a Hungarian website.
Means that you achieved something.
Congratulations, guys! This is absolutely great idea! How and where did you guys get the first idea??
Very nice project. Thanks for showing how it’s done. May give it a try.
This project is so fascinating! It’s really cool that we now have the cell-phone GPS technology to aid us in tracking these balloons to bring them safely home again. I wish I could’ve done this stuff when I was kid….
Kongratulations! BUT: what if an aeroplane ist damaged by your equipment? a lot of people could be hurt! o,8 kg at a speed of 500 mph! look for a place or space in the atmosphere without aeroplanes! greetings from austria and excuse my bad english.H
Guys,
Congratulations!
Amazing work.
Looking forward to seeing all the pictures in high quality.
Keep exploring!
Congratulations – nice idea. However, it does not look like safety was a concern at all. Yes, the FAA regulations might not apply to the payload size – but, what about ground issues – what if you had damaged property or worse yet – a person?
I would strongly suggest in the future you drive out to Texas, NM or AZ to do this experiment – plus define a safe radius based on upper winds – perhaps consider a light parachute or streamers to slow the descent. Plus, you should get clearance from the FAA and local authorities – always!!
There are some high altitude ballooners around the country that would help with best practices: http://www.arhab.org/
they had a parachute
Great Job. This could be a nice project for a High School Students here in Belize.
Congrats you guys!!! As a NASA employee I love seeing that the love and wonder of space/earth is still alive!