Students from the University of Cambridge "Spaceflight" project last week pulled off quite a coup when they successfully dispatched an experimental electronics package into the upper atmosphere strapped to a weather balloon, in the process capturing some impressive images of planet Earth from a peak altitude of 32.2km (105,600ft)
The payload contained "two completely independent custom-built tracking devices with three communications methods: SMS over a GSM cellphone, high speed radio data and low speed radio Morse code. Both radio transmitters operated at 10mW in the 434MHz licence-exempt band", the team's report explains.
To record the test for posterity, the package also boasted a 5 megapixel digital camera...
The team had been tracking the flight while giving chase in a car. Despite the loss of the data radio signal, "believed to be due to low temperature affecting the frequency of the crystal oscillator" and the failure of the antenna connection on the morse code receiver, the proto-von Brauns were able to eventually recover the payload after a post-touchdown text message from the onboard mobile phone revealed its precise location.
Hmmm, the transmitters failed but the cel. phone worked. Verizon is everywhere!
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