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Have you ever wish you could have your own personal artificial satellite ? One party is on a mission to put high - altitude balloon , akin to floating satellites , into the mitt of space fancier .
Indiana - based startup Rockzip recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring affordable , floating space probe to the masses . recognize ashigh - elevation balloons , or " highballoons , " the company says its products will make theupper reach of the atmospheremore accessible to investigator , entrepreneurs and bud scientist .
Rockzip’s high balloon floats into the atmosphere during a recent launch.
Conventional high - elevation balloons are expensive , said Austyn Crites , co - laminitis and President of the United States of Rockzip . Made of a thin charge plate hide and filled with atomic number 2 or atomic number 1 , the balloons are handmade and sell for around $ 1,500 , he said . But by using cheaper materials and streamlining production , Rockzip could start trade its high - ALT balloons for half that price , Crites said . [ terra firma from Above : 101 Stunning Images from Orbit ]
" We ’re get these balloons affordable to the pot , " Crites told Live Science . " We want to be the Henry Ford of the highballoon industriousness . "
Like Ford before him , Crites seeks to revolutionize an industry that ’s been around for a while . High - altitude balloons , some of which can get to altitudes of up to 100,000 feet ( 30,500 meters ) or 19 miles ( 30.6 km ) , have been used to observe weather patterns since at least the other twentieth century , andNASAhas been using these types of balloon to conduct scientific experiment for the past 70 eld , Crites said . One of the latest use of goods and services for mellow - altitude balloons isGoogle ’s Project Loon , which uses them to leave affordable net access to remote areas of the world .
But Google and NASA are n’t the only ones who could profit from having a high - altitude balloon at their electric pig , Crites said . By set these probes in the hand of the intermediate person , Crites tell the worldly concern may see an flush of raw app for these cock .
" We remember the key is to build a platform to get people exploring up there , " Crites say . " What we want to see is students and enterpriser using raw applications on this program and getting really originative . "
Some of the things that Crites think the balloon could be used for include predicting crop yields in places like sub - Saharan Africa , inexpensively establish load to near - space andtracking deforestationin the Amazon rainforest .
But high - elevation balloons can also be used just for sport , he said . outfit with a camera , they can snap aerial photographs at much higher ALT than the averagedrone . And if a tether is attached to the ending , new kids can experiment with pilot their own supersize balloon , Crites said .
The company ’s Kickstarter campaign says that using a gamy - altitude balloon is simple . First , you build your payload . The company ’s flagship product , the " full - size beta highballoon , " can convey about 6 lb . ( 2.7 kilo ) . Its smaller Cartesian product , the " pro highballoon , " can carry about 1 lb . ( 0.45 kilograms ) .
Once a GPS tracker , tv camera , sensing element or other equipment is attached , the balloon is filled with atomic number 2 and can then swim high up into the atmosphere . The full - sizing beta balloon can get to altitude of up to 65,000 ft ( 19,800 m ) — more than twice the normal flying altitude of a commercial plane — and can float for around 12 hour . The pro version travels to about 30,000 feet ( 9,140 m ) , and can stay airborne for about 5 minute . The sharpness of space is unremarkably defined as 62 miles ( 100 kilometre ) above the Earth ’s surface , or more than 327,000 ft ( 99,700 m ) up .
Crites say the company hop to increase the amount of time its balloons can spend in the air , and finally build a balloon that can remain afloat for weeks . For now , however , you ’ll have to go call back your balloon and relaunch it right out if you want to explore the upper atmosphere for foresighted stretch of time .
Rockzip ’s Kickstartercampaign has so far raised nearly $ 6,000 of its $ 15,000 goal , with eight days remain in the campaign .
