via BoingBoing:
Teen scientists at IES La Bisbal school in Catalonia sent a latex balloon 20 miles into the sky, to the edge of space, and took stunning photos of the Earth with it, using a cheap digital camera:
“Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort managed to send their heavy duty £43 latex balloon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent.”
Meanwhile, here in the U.S. students launched the model rockets they’d built from Estes kits. After gluing on the fins and descent streamer and then inserting the type C engine & igniter, approximately 60% of the rockets made it off the launch pad. Of these, some 2 made it back to earth safely and one burst apart in a shower of metal filings and shop detritus that the maker had poured in before capping both ends securely.
