When Aaron Harford was a child, he was interested in space. As an adult, a trip to space is still pretty much impossible, but taking photos from 80,000 feet was completely doable.
Harford said that he’d seen similar projects by others around the world and used what others had learned to help set up his own experiment.
The project began with a lot of research and a weather balloon. From the moment of inflating, the situation became somewhat tricky. The balloon, which measured some 5-6 feet and filled with helium, had a lot of pull.
“One wrong move and it bursts,” Harford said. “Lose it and you can’t get it back.”
The balloon, according to Harford, was set up with a black plastic trash bag to serve as something of a parachute for the return trip to land. Below that was the “payload.” In Harford’s case, the payload was a Styrofoam box, about a foot square and made of heavy material such as would be used for transporting medicine.
The payload box was equipped with black cardboard fins that Harford said had been put in place in an effort to keep the box from spinning out of control. The ploy apparently worked, based on the quality of the photos.
The next step was to pack the payload. Harford cut small holes in two sides and used Velcro to attach a camera to one hole and placed a cell phone at the other so that the camera from the phone was positioned over the hole. Just prior to releasing the balloon, the cell phone was set to “record” and the camera set to take photos every five seconds until the memory card was filled or the batteries ran down. The only other equipment in the payload was an inexpensive GPS locator.
With the payload packed and the balloon inflated, it was time to set the experiment in motion. Harford said he, his wife and his daughter Olivia released the balloon from the dike on Highway 7 on DeGray Lake. The choice was made because of the large open space and the likelihood that the balloon would be high enough to clear trees before it encountered any.
Harford said he’d researched protocol and that a weather balloon with a payload as small as his didn’t have to be registered. Still, he notified the local airport and started the project from well outside the city limits.
At that point, all Harford and his family had to do was wait. The balloon would burst naturally at somewhere around 80,000 to 100,000 feet and the GPS locator would alert them to the location of the payload once the balloon returned to land.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t some risks.
“It could land in a river,” Harford said during a recent interview. “And there are a lot of places that are really isolated. You may end up with nothing.”
The balloon could also have gone far off course. For that possibility, Harford had attached contact information in the hope that someone would return the payload.
As it turned out, the Harfords were able to retrieve the payload themselves. Harford said the GPS locator worked and they discovered a couple of hours later that the payload was in a wooded area outside Pine Bluff. Taking directions from a computer map, the Harfords set out to find the payload. The drive took more than an hour and they found themselves in a wooded area. After about two hours of wandering around, they located the payload – in the top of some pine trees. Harford said they drove to town, bought PVC pipe, jointed several sections together and fished the payload down.
Then came the chore of going through the photos – more than 3,500 though some of those were the view from the tree prior to the batteries finally dying.
But the bottom line is that the Harfords ended up with a series of photos from somewhere around 80,000 feet.
“That’s one of the best things about this,” Harford said. “Regular people can do this.”
Harford, a counselor for veterans at Henderson State University, said that he dedicated the flight to his stepfather who was a physicist. Harford said he also owes the success of the flight to his wife, Danielle, and daughter, Olivia, who were willing to get out of bed to launch the balloon in the pre-dawn hours. He said he also had help from Dr. Michael Lloyd who helped with the math calculations – figuring out what time to release in order to get the sunset and how much helium to reach specific ascent rates.
Harford said that space has always captured the interest of people and cited the accessibility of the materials necessary for an experiment of this type. He said that, while the balloon didn’t make it to outer space, photos from 80,000 feet are pretty incredible.
So what’s the next project? Harford said he’ll probably undertake to release another balloon at some point in the future and that he wants to work on the timing for a better photo of the sunrise next time. He said he’d also like to get more people involved with a future project.
Meanwhile, he’s posted many of the photos online. They can be seen at http://photobucket.com/space-junkie. Harford can be reached by email at aharfo56@suddenlink.net
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When Aaron Harford was a child, he was interested in space. As an adult, a trip to space is still pretty much impossible, but taking photos from 80,000 feet was completely doable.
Harford said that he’d seen similar projects by others around the world and used what others had learned to help set up his own experiment.
The project began with a lot of research and a weather balloon. From the moment of inflating, the situation became somewhat tricky. The balloon, which measured some 5-6 feet and filled with helium, had a lot of pull.
“One wrong move and it bursts,” Harford said. “Lose it and you can’t get it back.”
The balloon, according to Harford, was set up with a black plastic trash bag to serve as something of a parachute for the return trip to land. Below that was the “payload.” In Harford’s case, the payload was a Styrofoam box, about a foot square and made of heavy material such as would be used for transporting medicine.
The payload box was equipped with black cardboard fins that Harford said had been put in place in an effort to keep the box from spinning out of control. The ploy apparently worked, based on the quality of the photos.
The next step was to pack the payload. Harford cut small holes in two sides and used Velcro to attach a camera to one hole and placed a cell phone at the other so that the camera from the phone was positioned over the hole. Just prior to releasing the balloon, the cell phone was set to “record” and the camera set to take photos every five seconds until the memory card was filled or the batteries ran down. The only other equipment in the payload was an inexpensive GPS locator.
With the payload packed and the balloon inflated, it was time to set the experiment in motion. Harford said he, his wife and his daughter Olivia released the balloon from the dike on Highway 7 on DeGray Lake. The choice was made because of the large open space and the likelihood that the balloon would be high enough to clear trees before it encountered any.
Harford said he’d researched protocol and that a weather balloon with a payload as small as his didn’t have to be registered. Still, he notified the local airport and started the project from well outside the city limits.
At that point, all Harford and his family had to do was wait. The balloon would burst naturally at somewhere around 80,000 to 100,000 feet and the GPS locator would alert them to the location of the payload once the balloon returned to land.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t some risks.
“It could land in a river,” Harford said during a recent interview. “And there are a lot of places that are really isolated. You may end up with nothing.”
The balloon could also have gone far off course. For that possibility, Harford had attached contact information in the hope that someone would return the payload.
As it turned out, the Harfords were able to retrieve the payload themselves. Harford said the GPS locator worked and they discovered a couple of hours later that the payload was in a wooded area outside Pine Bluff. Taking directions from a computer map, the Harfords set out to find the payload. The drive took more than an hour and they found themselves in a wooded area. After about two hours of wandering around, they located the payload – in the top of some pine trees. Harford said they drove to town, bought PVC pipe, jointed several sections together and fished the payload down.
Then came the chore of going through the photos – more than 3,500 though some of those were the view from the tree prior to the batteries finally dying.
But the bottom line is that the Harfords ended up with a series of photos from somewhere around 80,000 feet.
“That’s one of the best things about this,” Harford said. “Regular people can do this.”
Harford, a counselor for veterans at Henderson State University, said that he dedicated the flight to his stepfather who was a physicist. Harford said he also owes the success of the flight to his wife, Danielle, and daughter, Olivia, who were willing to get out of bed to launch the balloon in the pre-dawn hours. He said he also had help from Dr. Michael Lloyd who helped with the math calculations – figuring out what time to release in order to get the sunset and how much helium to reach specific ascent rates.
Harford said that space has always captured the interest of people and cited the accessibility of the materials necessary for an experiment of this type. He said that, while the balloon didn’t make it to outer space, photos from 80,000 feet are pretty incredible.
So what’s the next project? Harford said he’ll probably undertake to release another balloon at some point in the future and that he wants to work on the timing for a better photo of the sunrise next time. He said he’d also like to get more people involved with a future project.
Meanwhile, he’s posted many of the photos online. They can be seen at http://photobucket.com/space-junkie. Harford can be reached by email at aharfo56@suddenlink.net
