New Film Idea - Amateur Space Exploration!

[Grant Willis]

Well, after casting around and thinking of what to film that would be truely interesting and inspiring, I happened to be invited along the other day to an event that fits all of these criteria.

There is a group here in South Australia experimenting with Amateur Balloon flights, taking payloads to the edge of space. I was invited to participate in their last launch exercise where we chased a balloon 200km across South Australia to recover it and retrieve the photos that had been shot. The images are spectacular and the idea of launching a payload and collecting images of what is happening on our planet on 10.10.10 from 116,000 feet up struck a chord. As well as the pictures from the balloon there is also the back story of how it is launched, tracked and recovered by Amateur Radio operators across the state. This strikes me as a very unique way of showcasing our world on this day.

The groups' blog and website is here: http://projecthorus.org/

Terry VK5VKI has already indicated he is willing to see if a launch can be put together for that day - so we will see if it can be made to happen. Hopefully the weather is kind enough that we can pull this off successfully!

[Brandon Litman]

Hey Grant... this is extremely interesting. What a great idea. As you can see from my icon, i have some insight into how cool the "view from above" is. Usually I'm jumping out of the balloons, but then again, i never get to go to 116,000 feet either! Thanks for the great idea, it is very inspirational.