All posts by TopSpacer

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 :

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

Cameron Smith and his space suit pursuit

I mentioned yesterday that Copenhagen Suborbitals will partner with DIY space suit builder Cameron M. Smith on a suit for their suborbital space vehicle. Smith, an anthropologist at Portland State University,  has now posted at Wired about how he came to design and build space suits: Guest Blog: Dr. Cameron M. Smith and His DIY Suit – Wired Science/Wired.com.