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)
Thank you very much for this post.
farshid
hey! i think tht was a real cool idea! im only 14 but im pretty good with this sort of stuff, so i think me and a couple of my friends are gonna try and do something like this.
just tips you think will really help me! thanks!
if you have some tips for me and my friends please contact me at eddie_lox@rocketmail.com please dont overload my inbox
Your pictures are amazing, I have been interested in doing something like this myself for awhile now. Can you please tell me if there is a British equivalent of the FAA?
Sorry of this is a stupid question.
Thanks.
Thanks for encouraging an anybody can do this at home attitude towards learning and creativity.
Awesome project!
The ballistics should have been no problems for you as you had Newton in the team. SCNR
Michael
http://www.phraseexpress.com
crazy man, great man, imaginative man.
Wow….That’s suprising….!!
How did you guys attach the parachute to the weather balloon line so that it hung so neatly and would still easily deploy? I am attemping to duplicate your project. Thanks.
Nice to see young people doing things many would consider ‘impossible’ or ‘too expensive’ for the ordinary man. You make me believe in a better world where anything is possible.
One question as I’m pondering building one of these yourself – FAA legality or not, there is potential for interference with an aircraft’s flight path from pretty much ground level up to ~40k feet MSL or more. Has any consideration been given to at least notifying the FAA of the potential area of lift and descent? A pilot would not see it coming (we have a hard enough time seeing other aircraft, let alone a balloon on the way up, or a rapidly descending beer cooler on the way down) and were one of these to hit the plane, it could cause catastrophic engine or structural failure. I realize it’s a long shot, but at least telling the FAA what’s up might help them tell local pilots what’s going on. It would require a little more coordination, but I think they might be receptive.
Thx
Great Idea! It is not easy to repeat the experiment. In Germany there are some laws that can prevent it. For example, because of the security.
This is just great. No millions of dollars wasted. You Rock
How do you figure out when the balloon will pop?
It’s really just science, I think chemistry to be specific. When the balloon is large enough it will pop. It becomes larger because the atmospheric pressure decreases and volume increases at a constant rate. If you know the volume at which the balloon pops you can find the pressure and then the altitude.
What was the escape velocity? I wonder what you guys can accomplish with $150 billion budget! To the moon, Alice!
Absolutely awesome project, excellent, loved watching the video, at 2:46 you can see space.
Geoff
Amethyst Jewellery
Oliver,
Thank you for the reply. I actually found the u.fl connector on the backside of the circuit board of the I290. I had to use wire cutters to open up a spot on the side for the wire to have external access.
The camera malfunctioned in a way I cannot describe. I did use new lithium batteries so I thing it was a mechanical failure. Or perhaps I set the Ultra Intervalometer script up incorrectly.
Since then I have been testing non stop and am ready for my next launch. I’ll let you know what happens in the forums.
As far as the GPS system you mentioned I may try that after this project. I’m going to try and use coms and radio modem on my third attempt.
Thanks again,
David
Hello
It was a good article
Thank you for your helpful article
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Wow great poject and I think the budget is not too expensive.
You’re always first
Sincere Greetings!
hey can i use a gps. and do u think i could use like a 5mill long string like fishing line with a high poundeg. like i could just get pics of my state and i could get a video of it going up and thin real it back in. but idk its a lot of work. i almost got it once but i lived buy a bace and the airtrafic would be a problem. i use 2 big party ballons and i got my camra up about 100ft. i would like to do it agin