Home-made $200 weather balloon camera captures the Thames from 118,000 feet up
The home-made rig was made by Josh Taylor, 21-year-old website designer from Guildford - entitled the Taylor Made Space Balloon. It captured images from 23 miles up in the stratosphere.
Taylor had lost radio contact with the unit as it fell - and was only alerted that its antenna were back online when he was in the pub having dinner.
The camera had fallen into the North Sea - and had to be inspected by the Coastguard for contraband. Taylor had to wash off the memory cards in fresh water to make them work again.
Taylor had lost radio contact with the unit as it fell - and was only alerted that its antenna were back online when he was in the pub having dinner.
The camera had fallen into the North Sea - and had to be inspected by the Coastguard for contraband. Taylor had to wash off the memory cards in fresh water to make them work again.
'We pressed record, gaffer taped and secured the lid, then hoped for the best,' wrote Taylor on his blog Joshing Talk, after he launched the balloon with school friend Edward Bishop, 21.
Taylor is still editing the video captured by another video camera inside the unit. He describes it as 'The most exciting weather balloon flight ever,' but says, 'It was a garden shed kind of project.'
He told Mail Online, 'Whoever you are, whatever you do, you can achieve the same results as I did. There's no better way to learn and enjoy science - your very own journey to the edge of space.'
The images were all taken automatically by the cameras, and saved to memory chips - Taylor only found out how many images he had after the unit landed.
After the successful launch, the camera's radio trackers stopped working on the descent, and Taylor had decided that it was lost.
'We headed back to a pub and had a much needed meal and whilst at the pub, I decided to take a look at the tracker to see what it was reporting,' he wrote.
'Previously, it had not reported any locations after many attempts.This time however, we got a response - although nothing we had expected. We had a location for some co-ordinates, roughly 3 miles of the coast in the North sea.'
The unit containing the cameras floated in the North Sea for 15 hours before it was rescued by coast guard.
After a day-long chase that Taylor said involved driving 'all the way round' the M25 motorway, the unit was handed over, after having been checked for contraband.
Taylor said, 'I wanted to prove that you do not have to be a rocket scientist to capture images like I have done.'
Taylor is now planning further space missions.
Posted by The Home Treatment
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