Neat, but there's something cooler about people with more limited means sending up balloons rather than a huge company, which probably has the means to build actual spaceships. It comes across as looking like a bit more of a publicity stunt than anything else. Here's one way it could be improved: let high school students submit ideas for experiments using the phones, with winning teams getting phones for the experiment, plus phones for themselves.
Yes, something is lost when a big company does it. I've been following the BEAR project (http://bear.sbszoo.com/bear7-8/bear8.htm) for quite a while, and it is so nice to see "real people" doing it for fun.
I found the same thing with flash mobs. The first time read about it, I was in complete awe. Then suddenly some company does it as a publicity stunt.
In both cases, the outcome is better when the big company does it, especially with regards to the video produced. But somehow I just end up feeling empty after watching it. Everyone can beat the game if they are using cheats.
When the balloon popped I physically clutched the desk for support, quite involuntarily.
I think it must be the rapid flipping of the ground/sky reference points in these weather balloon spaceflight videos that gives me such powerful vertigo.
>In tracking the sensors on each of the phones, we observed that the GPS in Nexus S could function up to altitudes of about 60,000 ft. and would actually start working again on the balloon’s descent. ... Maximum Speed: 139 mph
The unit shut itself off passing 600 at low speed, which is more restrictive than required. The rule is receivers that work above 60,000ft and 1000kt require export licenses as munitions (http://www.armscontrol.org/documents/mtcr), but there's no reason a phone's civilian-grade (unrestricted) receiver shouldn't work up high at that low forward speed. I suppose the most conservative possible interpretation keeps companies safe.
The lens is warping the view of the earth to make it appear that they are higher up than they actually are. Still really cool, but I was ultra-impressed in the beginning portion of the video.
It's a bit misleading to flatly cite the 100km Karman line as if there was no room to debate "where does space begin?" The boundary could be lower: NASA gives out astronaut wings at 50 miles (264000 feet). Or maybe it should be higher: Orbits decay pretty quickly under atmospheric drag at that altitude, and drag is a factor even at ISS altitude, requiring a bit of fuel now and again to replace energy lost to drag. The point at which reasonable flying speed equals orbital speed (~100 km) is just one demarcation, chosen by convention from many possibilities.
