Leonard David writes about the growing interest and activity in high altitude ballooning: Balloon Flights Bring Near-Space Exploration to Masses – Space.com.
Category Archives: Near Space
JP Aerospace – MHD propulsion development update
A report from JP Aerospace on the latest test of their MHD propulsion system, which would be used to power their airships to orbit (see writeup pdf): Magnetohydrodynamic Generator Test 90 – JP Aerospace Blog.
Students of Space Hub Southeast fly PongSats
JP Aerospace for many years has flown for free lots of PongSats with miniature payloads from students from all over the world. Now some high school students in Atlanta are expanding on JPA’s work:
- Space Hub Southeast | Furthering the J.P. Aerospace PongSat program
- PongSat Program | Space Hub Southeast
Space Hub Southeast is run by four high school students, Beau, Meryl, John and Nathaniel. We work to make the program possible, along with developing a newly applied “PongSat” outreach program. The club, built on a service-learning platform, is designed to both excite and educate kids about the upper atmosphere. Each year, we help kids build high altitude weather balloons, so they begin to learn about conducting experiments and the properties of space. For each of us, this is what we truly love doing, and we take great pride in our work.
High altitude balloon kits and tutorials
High altitude balloon projects have become increasingly popular with students and hobbyists in the past few years. Usually such balloon adventurers would gather up the necessary info and materials from a variety of sources. Now there are sites that offer complete kits. For example, the project in the previous post used hardware from High Altitude Science. That site offers weather ballooning kits and offers on line tutorials.
Here are some similar stores:
Here are a couple of tutorial/testimonials :
- High Altitude Balloon Launch – SparkFun Electronics
- Flight 2 – High ALtitude Object
- Do-It-Yourself Gadgets: Weather Balloon Kit – tutorial (in English) for flying in Germany
Find lots more info and links in the HobbySpace Near Space section.
Hello Kitty reaches new heights in balloon flight viewership
I guess everybody else has been pointing to the high altitude adventure of Lauren Rojas’s Hello Kitty doll. Her video has reached almost 769,000 views at the moment.
Besides the cuteness, it was quite an impressive project for a 13 year old
- Hello Kitty says hello to space, thanks to Antioch teen’s science project – Inside Bay Area – Feb.7.13
- The science behind Hello Kitty’s wild ride – Inside Bay Area – Feb. 7.13