Last weekend my husband Scott took our daughter Mindy on a trip to Louisiana to visit our son David and his family. I'm really glad they were able to go.
While they were there, David and a friend from work launched a balloon into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. This was a special balloon that they ordered online which was about 5' in diameter when it was inflated with helium. They attached a foam cooler with an old camera inside along with a GPS to help them track the balloon. The theory was that the helium would freeze at a certain point in the atmosphere and then the balloon would pop, the payload would gently descend to earth with its parachute. I have to admit, when I first heard about this, I was highly skeptical that it would work.
But it did! On Friday morning they drove 2.5 hours to the east, nearly to the Texas border, to launch the balloon so that it would land close to where David lives. There were all kinds of things that didn't go exactly right but they inflated it with their helium tank and got it launched and immediately it headed south towards the Gulf of Mexico because of the surface winds--not good. Fortunately, once it rose past the surface winds, it headed east like it was supposed to. After a couple of hours the GPS stopped--it was supposed to quit working at about 30,000 feet but instead it kept working until about 80,000 feet altitude. They estimate that the balloon got to about 107,000 feet before it popped. When the payload landed, the GPS started sending out signals again (or something like that.)
The place it landed was in Mississippi--about 1.5 hours away from where they wanted it to land--in the middle of a private hunting preserve. Every road into it had signs saying "No Trespassing" and "Don't even think about trying to go on this road", etc. They talked to a guy who lives in a trailer right next to the property and he offered them a gun to protect themselves from the panther who lives in the preserve. They declined since none of them knew how to shoot a gun. In the end, they were able to get into the property and locate the payload without injury. It was a miracle! Everything worked basically how it was supposed to and they got some amazing photos.
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| Scott's role was to encourage them to keep going and find the payload because they were getting discouraged about getting on to the property and finding it, especially in the dark. |
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| You can see the Mississippi River on the right. |
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| The Gulf of Mexico is in the distance. |
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| This is the Mississippi on the right and David could find his house in this picture. I think the brown stuff is lots of trees. |
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