# Grand Canyon from the Stratosphere! A Space Balloon Story **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2015, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156 "2015-09-13T23:13:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/1 "2015-09-13T23:13:10Z")
Quite a remarkable experiment that came so close to failure. Bryan Chan and his friends launched a weather balloon with a GoPro camera June 2013. GPS tracking failed and it was lost. The camera was found in the dirt 2 years later and returned to Bryan. There’s some great footage on it. He posted a short 4 min video on youtube. The chances of capturing such stunning video were slim. I’ve watched it six times so far. Mesmerized by this incredible, once in a lifetime footage. Yeah, I’m a geek and love science. 🙂 I hope he posts a much longer video from the 1 hour 38 min trip. A redit thread documents the experiment. [https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3khrwc/i\_sent\_gopro\_attached\_to\_a\_weather\_balloon\_above/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3khrwc/i_sent_gopro_attached_to_a_weather_balloon_above/) Daily Mail does a nice job summarizing the story and includes screen caps of the Grand Canyon from the edge of edge of the stratosphere (98,644ft - or 18.7 miles). I found it helpful because I didn’t want to read the entire redit thread. > **[Incredible footage of Grand Canyon from 98,000ft found on lost camera](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3232346/Students-lost-GoPro-using-balloon-send-98-000ft-high-camera-TWO-YEARS-later-hiker-hands-footage-revealing-breathtaking-views-Grand-Canyon.html)** > > Bryan Chan and his four friends hoped to find the camera after it landed by using GPS but their plan failed, but two years later a hiker found the GoPro lying in the dirt in Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/2 "2015-09-14T22:30:01Z")
Drop an iPhone from waist-level, and it breaks. Drop a GoPro from 100,000 feet, and it keeps recording after it lands. ---
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/3 "2015-09-16T12:16:38Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > Drop an iPhone from waist-level, and it breaks. > > Drop a GoPro from 100,000 feet, and it keeps recording after it lands. Maybe a bit more than [waist level.](http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/iphone-5s-survives-9300ft-drop-aeroplane-texas-even-provides-gps-retrieval-1513504) Never used a GoPro but I assume it has a few less parts to break than an iPhone. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/4 "2015-09-16T12:45:53Z")
very interesting…Arizona looks like Mars. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/5 "2015-09-16T14:56:58Z")
The footage was awesome. Also awesome was the fact that a woman went to the trouble of finding these people and returning their property to them. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/6 "2015-09-17T01:35:06Z")
Do you need any permissions or clearances to launch a balloon like that? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/7 "2015-09-17T03:03:38Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Do you need any permissions or clearances to launch a balloon like that? I think the laws vary depending on where you are. They were out in the desert and there were probably no restrictions. But, it would be a good idea to check before doing a experiment like this. Their weather balloon did go up into the airspace used by commercial planes. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/8 "2015-09-17T03:16:13Z")
Popular Mechanics has a short checklist for DIY balloon experiments. > **[How to Launch a Camera Into Space](https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/how-to/a6568/how-to-launch-a-camera-into-space/)** > > MIT students Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh put a camera in a cooler, tied it to a balloon, and launched the rig 17.5 miles into the stratosphere. The 5-hour flight took photos of Earth every 5 seconds. Then, at 90,000 feet, the balloon popped. > [@](#): > > 1. Alert the FAA > > “Be sure to notify the FAA at least 24 hours before launch. Technically, balloons under four pounds are unregulated. But notifying the FAA decreases your chance of flying into restricted airspace.” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-canyon-from-the-stratosphere-a-space-balloon-story/731156/9 "2015-09-17T13:26:54Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > Drop a GoPro from 100,000 feet, and it keeps recording after it lands. Well, it had a parachute to slow it down.