Radiosonde, weather balloon, near-space exploration package... call it what you will, but today's interviewee,
Jamel Tayeb, is hanging instrument packages and cameras below balloons and sending them up to 97,000 feet (his highest so far), then recovering them 50 or 60 miles away from their liftoff points with help from a locator beacon -- and not just any locator beacon, mind you, but a special one from a company called
High Altitude Science with "unlocked" firmware that allows it to work with GPS satellites from altitudes greater than 60,000 feet, which typical, off-the-shelf GPS units can't do.
Here's a
balloon launch video from
Instructure, a company that helps create open source education systems. The point of their balloon work (and Jamel's) is not that they get to boast about what they're doing, but so you and people like you say, "I can make a functioning high altitude weather balloon system with instrumentation and a decent camera for only $1000?" This is a lot of money for an individual, but for a high school science program it's not an impossible amount. And who knows? You might break the current
high-altitude balloon record of 173,900 feet. Another, perhaps more attainable record is
PARIS (Paper Aircraft Released Into Space) which is currently 96,563 feet. Beyond that? Perhaps you'll want to take a crack at beating Felix Baumgartner's
high altitude skydiving and free fall records. And once you are comfortable working with
near space launches, perhaps you'll move on to
outer space work, where you'll join
Elon Musk and other space transportation entrepreneurs. (
Alternate Video Link)