The Icarus Project

A man from West Yorkshire has managed to take incredible images of Earth (see below) from his home made camera costing just £500 in what he calls the Icarus Project.

He was researching High Altitude Weather balloons one day and stumbled onto how to create this, It’s named Icarus I, and was first flown in October 2008. It took dramatic shots that spanned 1,000 miles of the Earth's surface, showing the curvature-of the earth. He has since sent a dozen capsules into space.

Even Nasa was so impressed they even attempted to contact the man responsible to ask him how he could have managed it.

Pretty amazing since alot of people from this site could probably achieve this quite easily.

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(Click Here)

It took dramatic shots that spanned 1,000 miles of the Earth's surface, showing the curvature-of the earth. He has since sent a dozen capsules into space.

'My family and friends thought I was a bit mad at first but they were suitably impressed with the results,' said the married father of three from Highburton, West Yorkshire.

'The pictures speak for themselves. People think this is something that costs millions but it doesn't.'

Before launch, the camera is attached to a tiny computer programmed to trigger a photo every five minutes.

It is wrapped in loft insulation bought from a DIY store then placed in a polystyrene box.

When the balloon reaches the 22-mile-high mark it pops because the air pressure is too weak to keep the helium inside. As the box falls a mini-parachute automatically opens. Mr Harrison has recovered it from up to 50 miles away.

What do you guys think?

[edit on 26-3-2010 by Rising Against]

Thanks OP, good read. Just goes to show you can do anything you put your mind to.
I wish there were more private company's that did things like this so we would not have to wait for photo-shopped images from NASA.

Wonder if at that altitude you could attach a rocket to send it into outer space .... Catch some UFO's on the fly

I bet NASA are interested.

Imagine if all and sundry were able to do this!!

Statistically there would be also sorts of pictures coming from "out there" and this type of film or photography wont just be the remit of a few space agencies any more who can control and edit out the final product.

I noticed I couldnt see any stars in his photo's ethier. Maybe NASA is being truthful.

reply to post by Rising Against

Even Nasa was so impressed they even attempted to contact the man responsible to ask him how he could have managed it.

Hmmmm... NASA contacted him??? I bet they asked him: "- Hey, what ELSE your camera caught, before it lose altitude??" Better he watch out...

Someone linked up this video recently, pretty interesting. Shows the take off, flight, etc. If you are prone to motion sickness you might want to avoid the landing.



[edit on 26-3-2010 by crafty_gnome]

Originally posted by HooHaa

I noticed I couldnt see any stars in his photo's ethier. Maybe NASA is being truthful.

I noticed that too, good catch.

I'm glad to see that the government space agencies are interested in this, although if I think there is definitely a touch of spin to make this out as something bigger than it is.

I'm not in any way diminishing what this guy has done, to the opposite actually. I think he has however opened a can of worms concerning the out-of-this world costs associated with space travel. True orbital insertion is not an easy thing and will remain expensive for some time yet but he has done something that NASA themselves often do, except he did it on a hobbiest budget.

Great Job!

[edit on 26-3-2010 by [davinci]]

reply to post by Rising Against


Those pics make me almost feel like im in space. If only I had a camera for myself. $&F!

reply to post by FoxStriker




Ohhhhhh Nice Idea!

Although in all seriousness I wonder if that guy has ever actually caught anything “unusual” on one of his photos before.

the directions are on the internet to do this project yourself. everyone interested should be doing this as well. you never know what you might get. I would imagine the only thing nasa was interested in was if the guy got pictures of anything unusual, and if they could buy them.

reply to post by Stop-loss!


Same here. lol

Just need to find some money now.

Originally posted by ucalien
reply to post by Rising Against

 

Even Nasa was so impressed they even attempted to contact the man responsible to ask him how he could have managed it.

Hmmmm... NASA contacted him??? I bet they asked him: "- Hey, what ELSE your camera caught, before it lose altitude??" Better he watch out...

My line of thinking also, combined with they were wondering -- if a person can send up a camera, what else can they send up?

Originally posted by HooHaa

I noticed I couldnt see any stars in his photo's ethier. Maybe NASA is being truthful.

They where not high enough as the sun drowns the atmosphere in light.

It would be interesting to send this thing up during night with only moon light and maybe a little bit higher with a bigger balloon.

This does not really say anything as to seeing stars

reply to post by Rising Against


We actually had a Japanese team of scientists attach a camera to our high altitude weather balloons when I was working in Darwin Met Office a couple of years back We got similar pictures to this, only difference was it was video not images

And yes we recovered the balloons and video recorder