Brooklyn Dad and Kid Send iPhone Into Outer Space In a burst of science-is-fun educational invention, a Brooklyn dad built a carrier for an iPhone (the current model, with video camera) out of a takeout box, tied it to a weather balloon, and let it go with the camera running. It reached a height of nineteen miles, or about 100,000 feet, which is high enough to show the earth's curvature and a black sky above the atmosphere. At that height, the low pressure means that the helium expanded and the balloons burst, whereupon the phone (in its little cushioned capsule) came down, down, down — and landed 30 miles outside New York, signaling to its owners via GPS, whereupon they went and picked it up. The resulting six minutes of rivetingly weird film are sure to make Mythbusters fans weep with joy.
Now the problem is that if everyone starts doing this from their backyard we are going to be inundated with falling HD cameras. I can just imagine mass marketers now implying that their products are built to withstand HALO insertions.
