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Landing & Retrieval

 
The parachute slowed down the fall sufficiently for the capsule to stay together in one piece.  The Motorola i290 managed to send out its gps location before landing. Although our the electronics suffered no damage (low impact velocity), the cell phone antenna burrowed into the ground upon landing, preventing further transmission of gps location.

We were also lucky that the capsule landed in a soft-earthed construction field with a clear view of the sky. Retrieval would definitely have been a much more difficult process had our device landed in a lake or in the forest.

Found it! Simply amazing

Found it! Simply amazing

making sure the camera is ok

Making sure the camera is ok

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Inspecting the capsule

Inspecting the capsule

checking the exciting photos!
Checking the exciting photos!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 

142 comments to Landing/Retrieval

  • Ahmed

    He is using Windows :D

    All I can just say, wow

  • HellaHectic

    just like other people keep saying about the safety thing and this thing landing…ive dropped many many styrofaom beer coolers in my time down 10 feet flights of stairs and off the backs of 7 foot backs of pickup trucks full of beer and watched them smash to pieces…this thing fell 90 THOUSAND FEET AND REMAINED IN TACT…without damaging its contents..layoff….obviously the parachute was able to slow the descent to the point where any damage that could have been caused was kept to a minimum….my styrofoam beer coolers full of beer falling down a flight of stairs burst into pieces…this thing fell from the curviture of the earth and stayed in tact…what more can i say?

  • Hi,
    I am busy to prepare a website.

    Can you please send me the website URL where you find the social (half) hidden button used on your site.

    I want to use it for us at office.

    Sincerely thanks and have a nice day.

    Thanks for your exciting experiment.

    Miguipda ;-)

  • DBG

    Windows 7?

    Haha, nice work boys. I’m impressed :)

  • Padre

    Great Job guys. WPI Grads salute you.

  • Andy

    Amazing — Love the photos and the article in the Boston Globe today….! This is really inspiring!

    But: Why aren’t you wearing shoes on the construction site?

  • marc

    My partner and I are thinking of doing this for our science fair but we live in Oahu, Hawaii. At it’s longest it is 44 miles wide and 30 miles long, which is a huge problem considering its highly likely that the contraption will land in the ocean. Would it be successful if we used some kind of fishing line or string to hold it? I know that there was some discussion about this but we just want to know is it possible? We also have some safety concerns about that particular method and maybe the project itself. We don’t want to cause any damage. Would you recommend that we abandon the project all together or persevere?

    • as to the string/fishing line.
      90+ thousand feet of line would almost certainly break under its own weight.
      even if you used braided line like spiderwire, it still would be too much weight for the strength.
      -Ezra Hilyer

  • Hyperslide

    Wow this is wery cool. The Pictures was Amazing. Go on Guys.
    I haver Read it on the German Magazine PM.

  • Hyperslide

    Hi What they Doing is very Cool. With a so Small Budget are they
    doing this I also can say Wow!!!! Good Luck!!! :-)

  • Rafael Faraone Rando

    Congratulations from Brazil !!!! Very good job !

  • thinking mind

    how long did ithe decent take?
    i know math to figure out the force on landing

  • sbm111

    Hey what sized parachute did you use to slow down the decent of the capsule?

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