Transatlantic Amateur Balloon
December 13, 2011 1:49 PM   Subscribe

The CNSP-11 balloon from the California Near Space Project, launched from the west coast of the U.S., is now approaching the coast of Africa at 110,000 feet and 152 miles per hour. You can also follow the project on Twitter.

The balloon broadcasts its position using an APRS beacon. I believe this would be the first amateur balloon to cross the Atlantic (the Spirit of Knoxville didn't make it).
posted by exogenous (7 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Cooool. Also, nerdtastic.

I love that people are doing more cool stuff with near-space balloons. Hooray for (comparatively) cheap electronics.

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first amateur radio satellite from AMSAT.
posted by rmd1023 at 2:17 PM on December 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


is now approaching the coast of Africa at 110,000 feet and 152 miles per hour.

So... roughly 8.2 minutes until impact?

posted by ceribus peribus at 2:34 PM on December 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


Neat. Looks like it's about 4.5 hours away from the coast. According to a comment I saw here, the battery lasts about 50 hours before the signal gets weaker. It's already been 46 hours. Cutting it close!
posted by yeti at 2:45 PM on December 13, 2011


Interesting, yeti. The twitter mentioned that it would start transmitting at sunrise which made me think it had solar power. Unfortunately the technical details on the construction are sparse right now.

Also, it looks like they smashed the previous distance record of 3,361.81 miles according to these guys.
posted by exogenous at 3:28 PM on December 13, 2011


Interesting, yeti. The twitter mentioned that it would start transmitting at sunrise which made me think it had solar power.

Based on stuff I've been reading on the GPSL list, could be because they expect the battery to warm up and come back to life.
posted by brennen at 4:49 PM on December 13, 2011


Seems to have burst over the Mediterranean. Unofficial flight duration: 57 hours 2 minutes. Unofficial distance from origin (not flight track): 6237 miles / 10037km
posted by exogenous at 5:10 AM on December 14, 2011


I started tracking this off the Atlantic and kept refreshing every hour or so.
So cool.

Things like this (and "Maker Culture") as helping with the resurgence of Amateur Radio.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 10:33 AM on December 14, 2011


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