87,500 Feet of Awesome

Another succesful mission for NC Near Space! The NSL-7 capsule soared to 87,500 feet (about 16.5 miles) above North Carolina before plummeting to Earth near Raeford (West of Fayetteville).

The capsule contained a hacked SPOT GPS tracker, Trackuino board with a TinyTrack MicroAmp 3 and transmitted APRS packets for location on 146.39Mhz.  Three cameras were mounted pointing outward and below.

A few experiments were part of the payload as well: a partially inflated party balloon and a bottle of colored water.  The team reported seeing signs of freezing around 35,000 feet.

NSL-7 Flight Data (Google Earth)The flight data, which can be viewed in Google Earth, are available on the team's website.  This is a LOT of fun to explore.

We love bringing exciting events like this to Maker Faire North Carolina.  This is something that you and your family can do yourself!  Contact the group via their contact link and find out about the next launch so you can be part of the fun.

Congratulations on another succesful mission and thanks for inspiring thousands at Maker Faire:NC!

Photos from the NC NearSpace Balloon Launch

Friend of Maker Faire:NC and NC NearSpace member @ambermae has put together a video of the photographs taken by the NCNS-6 balloon after its launch at Maker Faire North Carolina on Saturday.  If you watch carefeully you can see an airplane (FAR in the distance)!

On Saturday, June 18th NC NearSpace launched a balloon with a camera set to take photos every minute. The balloon rose to 60,000 feet before bursting and returning the camera to earth. This is a video made from all of the photos. A selected set of still photos from the flight is available here.

Launch: Raleigh, NC
Landing: Ayden, NC

Near-Space Aerial Photography Meetup

There's going to be a meeting at TechShop RDU on Sunday at 6:00pm to discuss the feasability of launching a scientific balloon to "near-space" (70-100k feet).  The plan, so far, is to "launch balloon; take photos" but hopefully it will turn into a pretty rockin' project.  There is a thread on their forum.

If you have any interest in discussing the project come on by TechShop RDU on Sunday.  You don't have to be a member to attend the meetup but you will need to register as a visitor.

Here's a video for a little inspiration.