Father & Son launch iPhone into Space

This video first hit the internets last year—but it's no less cool now. From the description:

Father and Son team launch an iphone into space. The iphone along with a HD camera were lifted up to an altitude of 100 000ft above New York using a helium filled balloon. At this atitude the weather balloon burst and sent the iphone, camera and burst container hurtling towards the earth at 150mph even with the parachute open! Thanks to the iPhones internal GPS, the capsule and its contents were located intact in a tree 30 miles north of the liftoff site!

Unfortunately it's covered with crappy ads and has a mountain of keyword spam on YouTube, but it's still a great video. (Thanks Glen)

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Anonymous

cool stuff
egoVirus

What a kick ass project to get a kid excited about science and space! Bravo dad.
Anonymous

Interesting. And cool. Wonder what the “government” thought of it. If it’s fun, gov’t has to ruin it. ;) Nice work dad.
GreenJello

Sounds appropriate, though I wonder why they bothered with all the padding…..
nixiebunny

When YouTube invited me to cover my “featured” video with crappy ads, I politely declined.
Anonymous

Why do people keep claiming that their balloons went into space? 100,000 does not space make. Nor twice that. The United States Air Force and NASA define space as beginning at 50 miles and I’ve not read of any other standard lower. When your balloon makes it to 250,000 feet then we can start to quibble about space. OK?

Not to demean the stunt, just the claim.
Anonymous

Very cool. But space at 100,000 feet (30.48 km)?
The KÃ¡rmÃ¡n line, an international definition for the boundary of space is 100 km (383,083 feet). The US designates people who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (264,000 feet) as astronauts.
Also, the fish-eye lens gives an exaggerated curvature to the earth — you don’t see that much curvature from the shuttle at around 115 miles (around 600,000 feet) — it’s not the iPhone recording video, it’s only there as a GPS device.
Quibble, quibble, quibble — great video though.
Jean-Luc Turbo

Man, I just fell in love with the planet all over again…

What a truly amazing way to teach kids about the closeness of space and the science behind proper planning. I am sincerely impressed.
Anonymous

HD Vimeo version:
http://vimeo.com/15091562
Anonymous

Our school did something similar this year (albeit with a dedicated camera and GPS unit, rather than with an iPhone). We’re planning a second launch in the spring, and this time we’re going to send e. Coli bacteria in the payload, as a way of testing the effects of radiation on microbiology. Here’s a video a student made to show off the first launch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckyEOurQ46U&feature=player_embedded&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
Anonymous

By the way, Luke is an accomplished cinematographer, and shot the film, “Borat”
Anonymous

You dont need an iphone for this. Check out the Cambodian Space Mission. Some geeks in Cambodia did the same, and i think its actuallya bigger achievement. But okay, maybe it doesnt fit the picture of Cambodia :-)
Avi Solomon

DIY instructions for the Space Camera are here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/40569049/DIY-150-Space-Balloon-Camera
Anonymous

100,000 feet isn’t space.

Altitudes aside, remember this: you cannot use a helium balloon to lift something to space.

This is because lighter-than-air balloons rise because they are lighter than air. But they are not lighter than vacuum. So they will never rise to space, even with nothing attached. And an iPhone and camera are even heavier than nothing.

The curvature isn’t because the horizon looks all that curved at 100,000ft, it’s because of distortion in the camera (like converging verticals).
- Anonymous
  
  A technicality, sure, but from a young boy’s perspective and a father showing him that the impossible is possible, this is greater than the moon landing.
  
  With my model rockets as a kid I could only dream of sending something up so high and have a record of it – I flew to space through that video and it made me feel like that kid I once was, who drew star maps at 8 and would try to find anything I could in my telescope at night.
  
  I appreciate the clarifications and I am sure a few moments thinking about this we would all understand the context of space/not space. But this video is for those who believe in the possible. And the fact is a rather normal guy with a son in the city spent the afternoon reaching the stars and have a record to prove of it.
  - Anonymous
    
    that is fucking crazy
    cool stuff
DieFem

“Thanks to the iPhones internal GPS”.

WhatÂ´s the internal GPS has to do with it?. The iPhone sends some signal to somewhere saying where it is?.

AFAIK the GPS is a one-way device, but maybe I am loosing something, like the iPhone sending some message over the cellular network.

Can someone clarify?.
Anonymous

GreenJello@3 “though I wonder why they bothered with all the padding…..”

At the least, to keep it warm (ie, it’s insulation). It’s surprising that they were able to keep it warm enough even with the chemical hand warmers.
Anonymous

I would had expected the casing to be more aerodynamic, with fins and the weight at the bottom, like a bomb, to provide stability. but then again, it caught heavy winds up there. space or not, impressive, nonetheless.
BijouxBoy

Not in space…not in space….what a bunch of wowsers. Get a life, and lose the clip board and whistle. What have all these nitpickers done with THEIR kids, except sit in front on a computer and eat steak and cheese pies? Come on, killjoys. Lifty you arses out of the well-worn chairs and try something like that yourself. With your kid.