Just as Steve Jobs was today dropping the price of the new Macbook Air to record lows (yeyyy!) we got to know of another Apple device that went high up in space. Which one? The iPhone. To be exact, Luke Geissbuhler’s iPhone. The mission? The Brooklyn Space Program. And yes it really went into space and back in just over 100 minutes. Read on and watch the footage.
The iPhone was placed in a home-made space capsule together with a HD video camera, which was then attached to a weather balloon. The weather balloon will then be released and left to float high above. Eventually the balloon will grow from lack of atmospheric pressure, burst, and begin to fall back. The plan is for this to occur high up in space at 100,000 feet... that is 19 miles high up! Throughout its journey, it would have to survive 100 mph winds, temperatures of 60 degrees below zero, speeds of over 150 mpg, and the high risk of a water landing. For them to retrieve the package, together with the camera containing the footage, and the iPhone, a parachute would need to be deployed, and the capsule descend through the clouds whilst the iPhone transmits GPS coordinates. And after 8 months of research and testing, the plan worked like a true NASA mission... perfect.
Check out the Brooklyn Space Program at www.brooklynspaceprogram.org.
