How To Send A Camera To Space

Mr Markus Grocholewski shared some amazing photos with me where they took at 36Km above ground using a airship. The shots are simply breathtaking, so I asked him why and how he managed to send a balloon and camera to space.

With Markus'southward permission, I've edited and published his story hither. Information technology's truly an interesting read!

Markus is working on the final video which he will upload on his Youtube aqueduct (subscribe if you want to stay tuned). For at present hither is a brusque clip where the balloon bursts before slowly falling to the ground.

Joining the Project to Send a Balloon to Space

My name is Markus Grocholewski, a 27-year-quondam student studying mechanical engineering at the Academy of Applied Sciences in Munich. A grouping of students in my university was doing a team project to build and send a weather balloon to stratosphere, and I had the chance to join them later on.

They wanted to take scientific data including pressure, temperature, UV radiations, acceleration, etc using a conditions airship. They besides planned to put a camera on it to take photos and videos during the flying.

Sadly the photographic camera stopped working shortly after takeoff in the starting time flight, so they didn't become any photos or videos. The grouping decided to practise some other flying and asked me to bring together them. I dearest FPV drone racing and everything flying, and so I agreed without hesitation.

The group had already gathered the data they needed, and figured out how to build and fly the balloon. Therefore the purpose of the 2d flight was only to accept videos and photos. Because of that, we removed all the sensors and just focused on mounting some good cameras on the balloon.

Building the Infinite Airship for Taking Videos

Here is our shopping list:

Helium gas

We used virtually 20L of Helium gas, the gas is under 200 bar pressure, so information technology'south 3600 gas-litres. Nosotros bought ii bottles of these.

Force per unit area regulator with a tube

We got it from the university, information technology was actually difficult to get one of these :D

Weather airship

For example ane of these:

https://www.amazon.com/30ft-Professional-Conditions-Airship-1200g/dp/B00513FWQI
https://www.stratoflights.com/shop/wetterballon/

Depending on the payload, yous can cull a smaller or bigger balloon. Usually the weight of the balloon represents the payload it can behave.

If I repeat the project over again, I would buy a balloon from the stratosphere shop. They might exist a fiddling bit more than expensive, just information technology'southward easier to calculate the verbal amount of helium required using their helium figurer. This calculator just supports the balloon models from their own online shop.

Parachute

https://www.stratoflights.com/shop/fallschirm/

Long cord

https://www.amazon.de/Meister-Maurerschnur-rot-Polyethylen-Pflasterschnur/dp/B01N6LB4V8/

Adjacent fourth dimension I would buy a longer cord (100m).

Styrofoam box

https://www.amazon.de/Styroporbox-Isolierbox-Thermobox-Yard%C3%BChlbox-Warmhaltebox/dp/B019EMD5V0/

GPS Tracker

https://www.amazon.de/Satelliten-Ortungsger%C3%A4t-Diebstahlschutz-%C3%9Cberwachung-Echtzeit-Motorr%C3%A4der/dp/B00GJ2U300/

We used two of these, one with telecom and the other with an O2 SIM menu.

Later on the balloon landed, you lot can call the number on the SIM menu and you will receive a SMS text containing the GPS coordinates of the GPS tracker (balloon). If you want to tape GPS data, you will also need a micro SD retentiveness card.

SIM menu & SIM adapter

You can use the SIM from your personal mobile phone, but make sure to get a blank SIM from your provider before you lot use it for the airship. If yous lose information technology with the balloon, you can nonetheless activate the new SIM with your old number on information technology.

The GPS tracker takes only the former, bigger SIM cards. You will demand an adapter if y'all have a micro SIM.

Activeness cameras

We rented ii GoPro's from Cam Charter Europe, and we got insurance for them just in instance we lose them with the balloon. Nosotros also got a 64GB Micro SD menu for each of them.

Powerbank

For powering the HD activity cameras, x,000 mAh (10Ah) should be enough.

Other Tools

Record
Some styrofoam for the wings
Latex gloves (for not dissentious the sparse skin of the balloon)
Calibration
Nigh importantly, you volition need nerves of steel ;)

Getting Liability Insurance & Flight Permission

After ownership all the parts, we called our liability insurance to make certain that the balloon was insured. In one case you get the insurance confirmation, along with your launch location (GPS coordinates) you lot can then utilise for flying permission from air traffic command.

This is the permission we obtained, it was valid for 2 weeks. We didn't have to pay for that.

So during the 2 weeks period, we could choose any twenty-four hour period with the all-time conditions for the flight.

Launching the Airship

On the day we released the airship, our group gathered at 9am nearly the launch site to start the preparation.

First of all, we prepared the styrofoam box with a Dremel (rotaryl tool) and mounted the two GoPro cameras, one pointing downwardly and the other pointing horizontally. The GoPro filming downward was recording in 1080p 24FPS with Superview, while the one filming horizontally was recording in 1080p 24FPS with linear field of view.

Next we setup and tested the GPS trackers. When at that place is practiced GPS point, they actually work pretty well and have an accuracy within +/- 5 meters! To get the coordinates, you lot just demand to call them using your phone, and you will receive a SMS text with the coordinates a few seconds later.

After the box was ready, we went to the launch location to gear up the balloon. While two guys was filling upwards the balloon with helium gas, the residual of the grouping was preparing the cords.

As I mentioned, it's best to calculate the exact amount of helium gas you demand with the "helium calculator" by Stratoflights.

We and then started the cameras and GPS-tracker, put them in the box and continued the cameras to the powerbank. Nosotros carried out one final test on the GPS trackers before sealing the box with tape.

Equally the last stride before takeoff, nosotros weighed the payload (everything except the balloon) and estimated where information technology was going to state using the flight routes calculator.

After connecting the cords between the box and the airship, it was set up to launch!

It was an absolutely strange and scary feeling when I let get of the balloon… My whole torso was shaking :D

The balloon was finally in the air and we knew from the first flying that it should take about iii hours until it lands. The estimated landing site was "Aschau im Chiemgau", which is about 45 minutes of driving from usa.

Searching for the Airship

We picked up some beer and headed to the highway. :D

Unfortunately, we were stuck in the biggest traffic jam I take ever seen! Our navigation organization told united states that it would accept 3 hours instead of 45 min to get to the landing site.

Two and a half hours afterward, we call up the balloon should have landed, so I called the GPS tracker for the kickoff time and received the GPS coordinates.

But here is the trouble: the bodily landing location was really FAR away from the estimated location. The balloon landed on a hill in the Austrian Alps!!!

Afterwards we had a theory why our balloon landed then far away. We bought our balloon from eBay and non from Stratoflights, so we couldn't cull this exact balloon model in the helium calculator. That was probably why the amount of helium gas we filled wasn't 100% correct.

Later 4 hours, nosotros finally arrived at the landing site and it was already 9pm. But we weren't at the verbal location all the same, it took u.s. another hour of hiking up the hills.

We yet couldn't notice the balloon considering it was just too dark, so we returned domicile.

A few days later, we went in that location early on in the morning and tried once more. We actually institute the airship this time, merely it was stuck in a 15-meter-tall tree (fifty feet). It was just incommunicable to retrieve it, and so we left again without whatever success ;(

We were about to requite up, just I had this thought to bring together a Facebook grouping for climbing, and asked if there was someone willing to climb the tree for us. Lo and behold, a tree-climber agreed to assistance usa recover the box!

We managed to get the styrofoam box downward, just without the balloon and parachute. So if yous go to the landing site at present y'all will probably still see them hanging up in that location :D (47.60910, 12.47879)

The hard time came to an end and we were overjoyed after watching the awesome footage from the cameras!

The moment the balloon outburst.

It's a highly risky and expensive project, only you simply have to be prepared for the worst and take faith that things will work out okay :) We were worried and constantly discussing in the group what would happen if the balloon fell into a lake, on the highway, or on the roof of a church, or perhaps on a high voltage power pole…. The chances are low only it'due south entirely possible.

Recovering the balloon wasn't every bit straightforward equally we expected, simply it was such a large adventure, and an unforgettable feel.

Credit and Gratitude

We thought we would only need €300 to €400 for the projection. But in the stop it costed nearly €700, mainly considering of the multiple times of driving to the landing site. I wanna say a large Thank you to the University of Practical Sciences Munich for funding our weather balloon projection!

The members of the group project:

Markus Grocholewski
Maurice Siffert
Mert Rau
Sebastian Hecht

Professor Tilman Küpper who supervised the project: (website: https://www.me.hm.edu/professoren/kuepper/alphabetize.de.html)

Our tree-climber: Michael Jankowiak

Source: https://oscarliang.com/send-balloon-camera-space/

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