Noisebridge successfully launches And Recovers Spacebridge Alpha.

After two launches and total success having eluded us, we teamed up with the hackers from Noisebridge to assist in the launch of their project Spacebridge Alpha.
This proved to be quite the excellent merger of talents. They had been geeking-out on the positional tracking and long-range communication parts of their project but had little experience with successfully deploying a payload and seemed to lack photographic expertise. Luckily, that's what we had gotten right; where our flights had come short is what they excelled at -- we were experiencing synergy in action.
So we donated what we had, a hacked camera, parachute and anecdotal experience, and joined them for the launch. Below are pictures from the launch, photos from the flight and the on-board video. We do still plan to pursue our own space program, but for the time being, our two groups have merged.

Here are the images from the flight:

And the video of the launch:


Special thanks to our sponsor!

Second Launch

Well, we promised a launch in October but we didn't end up launching until November. Nothing was posted about it because it was a total failure.

The day we launched was super windy, but we tried it anyways -- this was a mistake.
We also tried to save money by buying less helium, but that was also a FAIL.

We filled the balloon with as much helium as we bought and it was only slightly lighter than neutrally buoyant but we went for it anyway. We let the balloon go, and it immediately went into a nearby tree. I climbed up after it, cut it down and jumped out of the tree. Unfortunately when I landed, one foot went into a bush, the other landed perfectly on the ground.
Two and a half months later, physical therapy is over and I can walk again. I tore many ligaments in my foot/ankle and I hairline fractured my leg.

Hopefully we can try for our third launch soon. Now its just a matter of scraping together enough cash to buy a balloon and some more helium.

If you, or someone you know, would like to donate large quantities of helium to our project, we'll stick your name on the side of our camera. You can even come launch with us. Just contact us through this website.

Photoset

With all the hub-bub around the launch and retrieval fiasco posting the actual images almost fell through the cracks. Here are the images Christopher Liked the best that he upload to Flickr. There were over 300 images, these are the cream of the crop.

I also wrote up a small photo-project on JPGMag http://www.jpgmag.com/stories/12965

Shopping List

One of the primary goals of this project was to make this happen using nothing but off-the-shelf parts. I wanted to be able to make a shopping list of everything that is required to conduct your own experiments.
Below is a list of all the parts used on the first launch of the Super Happy Fun Time Space Balloon Picture Machine Project.

Camera:

• Canon A700 link (I got mine on eBay for $30, I'd check there first)
  
• Lens protector / Filter attachment: 58mm barrel type lens adapter link (we actually used 52mm adapter and filters, but I couldn't find them again to link to them)
  
• 58mm CPL Filter link
• 4GB SD Card link
• CHDK for the intervalometer function (that cameras don't come with) link
  

GPS / Tracking Device:

• Pay as you go cellphone link we chose the i290
• $10 of prepaid minutes (7-eleven has them, so does Radio Shack, and boostmobile.com)
  
• Realtime GPS tracking software link we went with the level 2 tracking

Ascender/Descender:

• Weather Balloon: Kaymont KCI1200 link
• Parachute: 42" model rocket parachute link (we would've been just fine with a 36")
• Helium: The fellow at Kaymont said that one KCI1200 would require 291 cubic feet of helium, but we didn't even use half of the tank. link

Christopher also built a small suspension trapeze that the camera and phone were zip-tied to, but I don't know where he got the parts or how much it cost. I believe it was less than $5 worth of carbon tubes and string. The launch video has a bit of detail pertaining to the trapeze rig.

Legal Concerns

I have been asked if this is legal. It is legal... enough. FAA Part 101 regulations stipulate what can and cannot go up unmanned and what you are required to do before during and after flight.
We decided to have a very small payload (less than 1/4 the smallest size mentioned in the FAA regulations) and just launch it guerrilla style.
If you are still unsure, homeboy here did the time to research this and write up his findings.