Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
1
On Saturday, students of the Francine Delany New School for Children launched a Styrofoam cooler into near space. Their goal? Send it 19 miles into the atmosphere using a weather balloon, and when the balloon bursts and the cooler’s payload drops 100,000 feet back to earth, recover the cooler no matter where it lands.
Inside the cooler was a GPS tracking device sending out its location, and a camera recording the whole trip.
There were no guarantees the cooler and its contents would come safely home. After a 19-mile fall, the GPS technology could be damaged, or the cooler on top of a mountain, or in a lake or swamp.
But Tom Robertson’s 7th & 8th graders were lucky. Yesterday an A-team of parents and students recovered the cooler from a rural area in Vilas, N.C. (about 70 miles from Asheville, near Boone).
The plan is for the camera’s contents to be edited into a video to be shown at this year’s TEDxAsheville conference on Sunday. The students have already had a Skype chat with TIME magazine science writer Jeffrey Kluger (co-author of the book that became Apollo 13), and will share the stage with Kluger at TEDxAsheville.
One step for students, one giant leap for TEDxAsheville.
***
Video of the launch and photos from near space (taken from almost directly above the city of Asheville) are below. A celebration of the students’ success is today at Asheville Pizza on Merrimon at 5 p.m. It is open to the public (geek families welcomed) and there will be a showing of the photos taken during the camera’s journey into near space.
The TEDxAsheville conference, an annual platform for ideas and performances, is this Sunday at the Diana Wortham Theatre. Information about student programs at TEDxAsheville is here.
I’ve volunteered with TEDx Asheville for the past two years and I must say this organization attracts some cool people. This near space balloon project was successful because so many people stepped up to make it happen. It was a true team effort.
= Asheville Pizza — major funder
= The Pickering Family — major funder
= Diamond Brand — sold us the video camera at cost
= Holsten Gas — sold us the tank of helium (this is a BIG deal)
= PocketFinder.com — donated a gps unit (it worked perfectly)
= Molly McMillan & Marshal Janes — donated the use of their SPOT (satellite based) gps unit
= Peter Lutz — editing the hours of video down to a 3 minute knock your socks off video
There is an entire team of people at TEDx Asheville that made this project a success. This group includes:
Anne Manner-McLarty
Jennifer Saylor
Mandy Allfrey
Michelle Swicegood
Sharon Feingold
Tanya Fletcher
Trevor Carr
And then there are the students and teachers of Francine Delany New School For Children — a public charter school in West Asheville. Middle School teacher Tom Robertson agreed to partner with TEDx Asheville on this project and we started working on this in Feb. 2012. The students were a joy to work with. This class was an “elective” and met weekly during school.
I’ve volunteered with TEDx Asheville for the past two years and I must say this organization attracts some cool people. This near space balloon project was successful because so many people stepped up to make it happen. It was a true team effort.
= Asheville Pizza — major funder
= The Pickering Family — major funder
= Diamond Brand — sold us the video camera at cost
= Holsten Gas — sold us the tank of helium (this is a BIG deal)
= PocketFinder.com — donated a gps unit (it worked perfectly)
= Molly McMillan & Marshal Janes — donated the use of their SPOT (satellite based) gps unit
= Peter Lutz — editing the hours of video down to a 3 minute knock your socks off video
There is an entire team of people at TEDx Asheville that made this project a success. This group includes:
Anne Manner-McLarty
Jennifer Saylor
Mandy Allfrey
Michelle Swicegood
Sharon Feingold
Tanya Fletcher
Trevor Carr
And then there are the students and teachers of Francine Delany New School For Children — a public charter school in West Asheville. Middle School teacher Tom Robertson agreed to partner with TEDx Asheville on this project and we started working on this in Feb. 2012. The students were a joy to work with. This class was an “elective” and met weekly during school.
THE STUDENTS:
Colt
Jeremiah
Elliot
Ashlee
Dexter
Allison
Caleb
Soape
Nicolai
Julian
Thank you to Jeff Kluger who was eager to SKYPE with this group of students to share his passion about space exploration.
I look forward to seeing everyone at TEDx Asheville!