The pictures below look like they were taken by a multi-billion dollar NASA satellite but these photos were actually taken by a 19-year-old teenager using a camera duct taped in a box and attached to a helium-filled balloon. Adam Cudworth, from the United Kingdom, made his aerial device in just under 40 hours using a insulated box, GPS tracker, radio transmitter tracking device, two temperature sensors, a small video camera, and a $50 Canon A570 camera that he purchased off of EBay. As an added bonus he included a microprocessor board that he used to record the speed, G-Force, and altitude. He then attached it to a high-altitude 2-meter latex balloon with a deployable parachute and named it “HABE 5” (High Altitude Balloon Experiment, apparently his 5th attempt). The whole thing cost Cudworth a little over $300 to make.
The device took 2 1/2 hours to rise 20 miles above the Earth (110,210 feet), three times higher than a commercial airliner, and then it came tumbling back down to Earth. Cudworth retrieved the equipment in a nearby town about 30 miles from the launch point.
When I retrieved the camera I was stunned – it had captured some incredible photos and footage. The onboard video camera recorded great footage close to the ground after launch, however the lens fogged up at about 3km in altitude because moisture got in the lens – but it still looked rather impressive.
The pictures he retrieved were nothing short of stunning. Stills from the video and shots from the Canon digital camera have begun circulating around the Internet. And what’s next for young Adam Cudworth?
I’m now working on project, which will allow me to control where the box lands when it falls back to earth. But that’s work in progress at the minute and I’ll have to be content with this for now.
We can’t wait!
