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

Breaking News! NC Near Space Will Launch at Maker Faire:NC!

The team of near-space exlorers who made headlines last year with their launch of an HD camera-equipped near-space balloon will make an encore launch at Maker Faire:NC at 2:30pm tomorrow.  This is a fantastic event that shouldn't be missed.  Since the launch will be made from out in front of the building there's no cost to come and watch.

The Symphony of Science

President Obama gave a speech at NASA on Thursday about the future of the United States space program.  The content of his speech, however, isn't what I want to talk about.  The speech reminded me of a series of beautiful compositions created by John Boswell collectively called The Symphony of Science.

The goal of the project is to bring scientific knowledge and philosophy to the public, in a novel way, through the medium of music. Science and music are two passions of mine that I aim to combine in a way that is intended to bring a meaningful message to listeners, while simultaneously providing an enjoyable musical experience.

One of the pieces, Our Place in the Cosmos, I find particulary relevant to meditate on while thinking about Mr. Obama's words on space.