I’ve seen a couple of these experiments before, but this was one of the coolest attempts of late as Brooklyn-based cinematographer Luke Geissbuhler and his son set out to loft a iPhone into space using a large balloon and basic precautions to launch and retrieve their equipment.
This video recorded by the iPhone itself shows a liftoff on a cloudy day, a windy ascent to 100,000 feet and some great imagery from the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Unfortunately, the camera stopped about 2 minutes before the landing, but they were able to retrieve the device which landed in a tree some 30 miles away.
As inspiring as this story is (I must admit, I’ve considered what to do with my old 3G unit), I still have to wonder how safe this would be if everyone were launching balloons with iPhones into commercial air traffic. Nevertheless, it’s a great father/son project and some amazing video footage as well.
Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.