This is awesome.

Man you could talk in a silly high pitched voice for a decade.

Beautiful

Hey i can see my house from here!
Im mooning at you all from the window!

Can ya hear me now?

The site seems to be hammered right now, but that's incredibly cool.

Woulda been funny if it came back down with a note attached that said "hello from the space station".

I've followed their previous experiments. Very cool stuff.

One picture per minute? That would make one awesome animated gif!

Spumills - ahahaha

Houston, we have a problem.

Spectacular.

Let's hope that Google doesn't get any ideas or we might start Seeing "Google Paparazzi Ballons" out our windows...

Now you can see how dull Alberta looks from above too!

Just remember that Joe Kittinger did a parachute jump from nearly that high... 102,800 feet.

So far this is the best article I've seen on this site, good job guys.

@cirby:
Yes sir, a great video too, fell for what? 15 minutes or something insane like that? In fact, as he first fell, he said he heard and felt nothing because he was so high, there was no wind whatsoever. His suit didn't even move. I would LOVE to do that, even if the 'chute didn't open, it would be worth it.

The scary thing is that Google might get the idea to aggregate satellite photography, and make an app that will let you look at your own house from a high altitude. Man that would be cool.

Incredible pictures, awesome!
Incredibly cheap for near outer space pictures.

My only concern is the decent. It looks like a parachute... what if it landed on a freeway?
Sure, small chance in the Canadian plains, but still a risk...

I wonder why they did not use a glider type package that you could control over the last few miles of the decent (provided the thing does not land 500 miles away...)

I've been higher than that staying on the ground, and the earth was much more colorful. Jeez

Those pictures would rock if they didn't have the time/date stamp.

I don't know how you could be higher than that. That's pretty high.....

This is incredible. Congratulations guys!

This is eerily similar to what the scalps of the Blue Man Group look like under a microscope.

@sykotik:

I would LOVE to do that, even if the 'chute didn't open, it would be worth it.

I'm not sure I agree with the chute not opening part. On the jumping from that high... hell yeah! As long as they have dippers large enough. :D

i still can't get over the last sentence...
damn that's definitively... speachless...
"those are definitively cool pix" OH COME ON!!!

If that were done in here the US that parachute would have been shot down by terror-seeking F-15's. We never get to have any fun.

You know what? If it is THAT easy to send sh*t up into the stratosphere, I'll build a cheap 455 rocket, strap a huge Zeppelin on it and fly to Mars myself.

Darn Science is lagging behind.

M. A. R. S.

Mars, b*tches!

What would happen if instead of a camera, it was a model rocket. With the limited wind resistance up there, could it get into orbit? I'd try it but I fear the FBI would be at my door pretty soon.

Just a few replies to some of the more reasoned comments and queries from the guy in the green shirt in the photos.

Parachute recovery is the easiest way to get things back down. We are contemplating an autonomous return vehicle. I have already purchased a device that will control the rudder servo from a GPS course to steer string. Creating a glider that can survive a high speed dive through a near vacuum without ripping it's wings off is a bit of a feat. The chances of being hit by a vehicle are very small. The total mass of the payload was close to one pound. There would be very little damage done to a vehicle.

Animating the pictures is not a good idea, the payload spins quite a bit, so the animation would be very disjointed.

Projects like this happen all across the USA. There are many groups having a lot of fun conducting near space experiments. Some are even lofting payloads for NASA. All reputable groups fly within the rules. Here in Canada as long as the balloon is less than 115 cubic feet, there is no need to alert Transport Canada to warn aircraft.

Here are some records for Amateur balloons, and links to groups that take part in the activity.

[showcase.netins.net]

James
VE6SRV