Low budget high yield experiment amazes ‘experts.’
Teenagers with a £56 camera and latex balloon have managed to take stunning pictures from 20 miles above Earth.
Provingthat you don’t need Google’s billions or the BBC weather centre’sresources, the four Spanish students managed to send a camera-operatedweather balloon into the stratosphere.
Taking atmosphericreadings and photographs, the Meteotek team of IES La Bisbal school inSpanish Catalonia completed their incredible experiment at the end ofFebruary this year.
Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, GerardMarull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vil, Martm Gasull Morcillo and JaumePuigmiquel Casamort were able to send their heavy duty £43 latexballoon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent.
Underthe guidance of teacher Jordi Fanals Oriol, the budding scientists, allaged 18 to 19, followed the progress of their balloon using hi-techsensors communicating with Google Earth.
‘Meteotek was ourexperiment to see if we could accurately measure the Earth’satmospheric conditions at 30,000 metres, take pictures to prove theexperiment and then recover the instruments attached to the balloonafter its deflation,’ said team leader Paretas, 18.
‘We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs. To send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible.’
Continue…(see photos)