Stratospheric Photography and Blog from a South African teen
Oh boy…
I got home at 4pm today. School ended at 12. I am dead.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I can gladly (sort of) say that I was unhindered in terms of research. I looked up everything from cameras, to trackers, to past projects, to crowd funding, [funny cat videos], etc. So, the cameras: Continue reading “Oh Boy…”
We had a play rehearsals today, and I am feeling rather dead. On the inside. And the out. Actually all over. Being a director and one of the lead roles was not one of the best ideas I’ve had. It’s actually really hard to direct something while acting on stage… Wait never mind, that’s not why you’re reading this. What is it I’m meant to be talking abou… – Ah yes, project. Focus. Continue reading “We Might Have Liftoff”
Okay, I can’t actually see it but that’s not the point. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the tracking system. I need some way to track the balloon and the rig when it comes down, so that when it lands I know where to find it. The way the current tracking systems work, is by using a GPS receiver to determine the location by satellite, then it sends that data via cellphone networks (called GSM, which stands for “Global System for Mobile communications”) to the client on the ground. This is fine in places that have signal (i.e. the ground) but when one is 40Km up in the air, cell networks aren’t so hot. Continue reading “I Can See it, But Can I Track it?”
Skydiving is amazing. Really amazing. Especially the parachute, as it is your only lifeline that stops you from falling into the ground. While skydiving yesterday, I had an idea. What if I could control the parachute remotely on the Balloon’s decent? It seems to be a pretty straightforward process of only pulling on two lines: pull left to go left, pull right to go right… Continue reading “The Equipment”
I haven’t been able to do much, if anything, today as these plays are ruthless! I’m starting to think I underestimated the amount of work needed for them. It looks like I might need to put the project on a complete hold when the going gets rough with them. Continue reading “Funding?”
My research thus far has been slow and I am struggling to understand some of the concepts behind HAB. However, this is what I have gathered:
I will need a weather balloon, which will need to be filled with Helium (or Hydrogen, but that is improbable as it is expensive to make and highly dangerous to use). Then there’s the rig which will hold the camera but at this point I have no idea how to operate it remotely. The rig will need to be shock absorbent, as it will have to protect the camera and other equipment inside.
During school today I had a long talk with classmate Kerstin about the class 12 projects and the journals. She showed me her brother’s journals which were bound, embossed and very impressive to look at. The books gave me inspiration to make something as good, if not better for mine. The embossing was a nice touch, which is what I want to do as well. Kerstin told me how he did it, which once known is a very simply process.
Today was our first proper day back at school. We got a rundown of what we are expected to do this year, and quite frankly, it is a little overwhelming. We have to start and complete a full scale drama production in 3 months, all while working on this project, all while studying for matric, which we will start midyear. Since I am a director of the Noises Off production with Ruby Eastwood, it will be a lot more work on our part in terms of the play, which will mean limited time on project in the first few months. Damn.
This was not my planned project. In fact I didn’t even know this kind of thing existed until fairly recently. Ever since I first saw Waldorf class 12 project presentations 11 years ago, I have been thinking about what I was going to do for it. I made plans, drew diagrams and even tried to write my speech, all while I was still in primary school. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I wanted to do something big and impressive. My earlier drafts included building an aeroplane, revamping a car, building a house, etc. Right. Time to scale down a bit. Continue reading “Introduction”