The GPS cell phone we used to track the location of our vehicle lost reception soon after launch (at an elevation of ~2500 feet). Although we had expected to lose contact with the balloon, the altitude of “last-report” was much lower than expected.
After loss of electronic contact, we could continued to track the capsule visually for about half an hour until the glare of the sun prevented further viewing.
GPS information recorded in the flight logs reported a maximum altitude of 19,853 feet due to software limitations. With some simple approximations (linear extrapolation of velocity – a fair assumption justified after looking through flight trajectories of similar balloons), we estimated that our balloon achieved an altitude of about 93000 feet before returning to the earth. The balloon’s ascent took about 4 hours, and its descent took 40 minutes.
 Earth from 93000 feet. Long Island in the background.
|  Glowing from the sun
|
 Our balloon popped at around 93000 feet, beginning its 40 minute descent
|  The falling balloon
|
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great!
How good!
Amazing. Inspiring. Great achievement – truly a lesson on what you can do with a small budget and a great idea.
Amazing. Inspiring. Great achievement – truly a lesson on what you can do with a small budget and a great idea. Chris, Cape Town, South Africa
Great guys, you have inspired me. Yeh ($150) NASA ($…billions)
Rob Zimbabwe, Africa
Hey, Congrajulations on your succes. Its been proved once again by you all that with right planning and optimum budgets, we can acheive great success. May all our governments learn that.
Wishing you all a bright future in your field and success in all your endeavors
wow. space photograph only with 150 dallar!!
great idea, and creativity.
as a university student, this thing motivate very much. thank you
and good luck!!
I believe sky4 shows Boston and the north shore of Mass?? I think I can almost see my parents’ house!
Muito interessante. Precisamos de jovens com este espírito. Sempre indo além dos “normais”. Parabéns…
Muito interessante. Precisamos de jovens com este espírito. Sempre indo além dos “normais”. Parabéns… – Cleber, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Great job guys…. Im impressed….
Darn Nerds littering the planet like that ! Just Kidding
This was awesome. Congrats on a good job !
NASA = Owned
Great job guys, pictures are great. I can’t wait till the next one!
Great job. Next project……video record the next journey.
I would love to sit 5 hours and watch the event. (ok, over a few days)
Fascinating idea! Great work guys..
impressive for such young science/engineering students!
[...] 照片：http://space.1337arts.com/flight [...]
Come one ! With what the hack and from where were the pictures showing the FALLING ballon(ey) taken |?
How can people be so stupid to believe smt like this ?
Learn to read, Chewie. Then learn to type. The balloon was supposed to get the box into the sky. The capsule had a parachute on it so the components could survive reentry. The popped balloon dangled in front of the camera while the capsule was parachuting back down.
There’s one problem with that theory Rob, the fact is, the camera, because of its mass, would fall 100 times faster then the balloon, and even if it’s on a parachute, the paper/balloon/whatever floats in those images, would be simply flown UPWARDS by the wind and friction forces meeting them on the way down, and NEVER be seen by the camera.
Forgive the typos, I’m very tired while writing …
I work late at night.
Dear chewie,
Your comments about the difference in air resistance are valid. However, there are several points in which you have misunderstood. The camera was sitting within a Styrofoam cooler that increased its surface area about 20 times. That increased the air resistance dramatically. Also, in the upper atmosphere, the density of air is only about 1% of the density of air at ground level. Therefore a camera and a piece of paper would fall at the same speed (or very close to it). There is almost no air resistance at 93,000 feet. As you can see from the timelapse video, the images of the popped balloon disappears at the end, when air resistance is much greater.
That’s amazing, guys!
Congratulations, the pictures are spetacular! You’ve inspired many other people with this job!
Rodrigo, São Paulo, Brazil
great job! Really you are awesome guys!
so cheaply you reached such a results. You are inspiring 
Greetings to you from Europe (Lithuania) 
continue experimenting! 