USS Enterprise model ship launched into stratosphere, crash lands north of Toronto

Ok, so it didn't exactly "Boldly go where no man has gone before" but this is still really fun to watch. Quite the balloon ride indeed!

Canada AM

Canadian Steve Schnier launched a miniature model of the famed Star Trek flagship into the stratosphere at the end of April, and posted a video of the mission on YouTube.

...Schnier said the homemade rig bearing the miniature starship reached an altitude of 30 kilometres before crashing back down to Earth.

The U.S.S. Enterprise model – and the attached GPS transponder, flight computer to measure the ship’s velocity and altitude, as well as two cameras capturing the action – deployed a parachute as it tumbled through the stratosphere.

Here is the YouTube video


I find it interesting in the article it mentions that he had to be careful for his model ship not to enter US air space or fly withing its borders or else "he’d face the wrath of U.S. Homeland Security."

“We were extremely careful in dealing with that,” he said, adding that he contacted the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. “It can be a very dangerous thing to do, so we took every reasonable precaution there was.”

As a child, I always wanted to do this exact same thing! I had no budget though, so I would attach GI Joes to helium filled balloons and set them free

I found this story interesting and thought I would share with you guys.

Cheers!

Well theres Hello Kitty going over 93,000 ft in California and she didn't get shot down by some three letter organisation

I would soooo do this with a model of the Battlestar Galactica, an X wing, Death Star, etc etc

S&F

I had so many toys I wanted to do that with when I was a kid!!! The Millennium Falcon...Mego Superman...Starscream (...in plane form, of course...)

Nice find!!!

reply to post by Maxatoria


Go Kitty Go! Thanks for sharing that!

It seems those balloons fail at around 30,000 meters, from what I can see in both our examples.

-Hello Kitty burst at 28,537 meters
-USS Enterprise burst at 29,129 meters

Originally posted by Dominar
I find it interesting in the article it mentions that he had to be careful for his model ship not to enter US air space or fly withing its borders or else "he’d face the wrath of U.S. Homeland Security."

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN't do that, its our airspace!

............AND THUS THE TRUE SPACE RACE BEGINS!.....

While it it true that economic needs propelled our civilisation's exploration, it had always been a single man's innovation that led to the developement of rapid and low cost efficient mass transportation methods, by building upon and improving existing models.

Remember, the Rapier Drone was built by one american in a garage, and when its potential was proven, funds came in to what drones are today - for security and exploration.

High school and college kids tinkering in the garages are what will lead to further innovation for mankind's conquest of space, from fun but challenging and mind stimulating excercises such as the much loved USS enterprise model floating into space with electronics, to full scale ones that will bridge Earth to the stars one day. Small steps..to giant leaps.

It begins..from us......

Kevlar balloon lift systems, with higher altitude detachment plans and then thrusters for disengaging the earth's gravity.

It seems so simple. These videos made me think.

What we can learn and adapt from this Canadian endeavour could probably be something along the lines of this:-

1. Balloons had been proven to be cost effective to launch lightweight materials into space ( at least to the stratosphere)

Using that fact, if we use a thousand better balloons or more to launch a thousand parts, which are remote controlled helicoptors powered by solar energy to connect up into whole, we civilians may be able to build and launch a space station into space one day, without the huge costs of fuel to defy gravity, and keep it supplied and even build other space vehicles from there to explore the solar system.

I am sure that there are better ideas than mine. Naysayers will always be grounded forever and never move beyond a few feet of their comfort zone. It is often the dreamers that through their sweat, make dreams come true, since our civilisation began. None of them were Naysayers.

The Lego Felix Baumgartner also went up



I nearly shed a tear for how epic and inspirational this looks.

reply to post by wildespace


Haha that was amazing, very creative!

That was a very brave Lego Man, and I love the random disproportionate pick-up truck at 1:27

Originally posted by sticky
Kevlar balloon lift systems, with higher altitude detachment plans and then thrusters for disengaging the earth's gravity.

It seems so simple. These videos made me think.

I missing the "thrusters for disengaging Earth's gravity" part of your plan. You would still need a lot of thrust to get into orbit....

...and orbit is NOT "disengaging Earth's gravity". Items in orbit are still feeling 99% of the Earth's gravity, and are still being pulled back down to earth.

lol isnt that the wrong music for that model of the enterprise?

Fail

Very cool

Some people just have way too much spare time.

Peace

Originally posted by Biigs

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN't do that, its our airspace!

That was epic and clever LOL!

I just returned from watching the latest movie; Interesting how they have changed the time line for the new script. I enjoyed the movie. Shame we are so backwards with our technology we can not do our own five year mission, "to go where no man has gone before". Only in movies and plastic models will our dreams be realized anytime in the near or far future.......I personally think our advancement sucks when it comes to space flight.....But I suppose it is better than animal skins and living in some cave which we may all be doing once again someday if we don't get off this rock......

Thanks for the video; to many a generation the Enterprise represents a dream of what we could be and a destiny unfulfilled. Blah Blah etc etc...

You can launch things like the Enterprise as a rocket in the US without having to worry about DHS, as long as you have FAA clearance. Rockets that fly over a certain height have to have FAA clearance (a lot of them you can buy as kits come with a letter from the FAA clearing them for flight). If you're launching in a high traffic area you have to get the FAA involved to ensure that the launch is safe (which would probably be a good idea anyway with those altitudes).

Originally posted by Maxatoria
Well theres Hello Kitty going over 93,000 ft in California and she didn't get shot down by some three letter organisation

Is there some jiggery pokery going on in that vid?

It's a bit fishy looking, and the Pussy never flinched.

reply to post by Dominar

That looks like the NCC-1701 or NCC-1701-A. Of-course it crashed, Kirk was the captain.

Get Captain Picard in the NCC-1701-D now!!!

That was awesome and I'm not even a trekky! The music really made the video, lol.