Five students launched a GoPro camera into outer space two years ago. They finally retrieved the device, which contained amazing images of the Grand Canyon from its previous height.
TVNZ reported that the GoPro camera and a smartphone were attached on a helium weather balloon near the Grand Canyon in Arizona in 2013. The students intended to monitor the position of the balloon using GPS. Subsequently, the GPS signal failed and the balloon returned to Earth after 38 minutes. However, the camera was missing.
In 2015, a hiker discovered the GoPro camera and returned the item to the students. The smartphone’s SIM card provided information to locate the students. The camera contained video of the Grand Canyon shot from 98,644 feet.
Bryan Chan, the person who launched the camera, explained via a Reddit post that they planned the launch in June 2013 at a specific time and place so that the phone would land in an area with cell coverage. After rising upwards for 87 minutes, the balloon burst and went down. They realized that the coverage map that they relied on was not accurate, causing the phone to fail receiving any signal when it returned to Earth. The phone actually landed 50 miles away from the launch point. Ironically, the female hiker who found the phone also worked at AT&T, the same company that provided the inaccurate coverage map. They saw the footage a few weeks later.
The video showed a marvelous footage of the Grand Canyon and plains of Arizona. As the balloon continued to go higher, the landscape continued to evolve until it was evident that the GoPro camera has reached the edge of space itself. The video showed strips of the torn weather balloon when it finally burst and started heading back to Earth. The full flight took one hour and 38 minutes. The phone stayed on the ground in the next two years.
Overall, the balloon reached a height of 18.7 miles, Daily Mail stated. The group uploaded the video on YouTube.
“In June 2013, a group of friends launched a weather balloon a few miles from Tuba City, Arizona. Enjoy the video of our launch preparations, video footage, and some data analysis of the flight,” they captioned.
Social media users were excited to watch the footage and shared their own feedback on the experiment. Others also shared how they would have created their own devices to launch into space. Many deemed the project a success, despite the delayed retrieval of the camera. Similar projects are expected to commence in the next several months.