UDATE: First Cambodian Space Ship launched, Mission accomplished
Posted: October-02-2010
in
UPDATE: Launch was successfull, See more impressive pictures from the balloon rising into the sky over Cambodia into the space.
It might be a bit late, but due to travel and connections issues I could not find the time for this review. The headline might be a bit misleading: Of course there is no space ship, but actually something is leaving Cambodia into the outer space. It looks like a weather balloon, and it is supposed to launch today depending on a Go from the builders.
So who built the balloon? Some people, who were participants at the 3rd Barcamp Phnom Penh at the Putisatra University last weekend. Around 1000 people ware listening and talking, discussing and presenting on this two days long event, which was free for everyone (with a big thank you to all the sponsors like Expat Advisory).
Barcamp is mainly about technology, so a lot students and IT-mangers were present, trying to catch the latest news about programming languages and hardware. But participants also learned about presenting skills, security in social networks, 50 years of comics in Cambodia and how to build a Cambodian space ship. In two sessions some parts of this balloon, which will have a video camera attached, were already assembled. The project is a side project from the NGO Insteed, namely Eduardo Jezierski, who had the idea some weeks ago and already did a test launch.
The balloon will be mainly built with material available in Cambodia, like a rubber sandal, flexible sticks used in Igloo-tents, ropes, used Canon camera, battery packs, radios and GPS-Chips. The plan is to get this balloon into 30 Kilometer altitude (which is technically not yet space), then destroy the balloon, launch a parachute and descend slowly back to earth. The landing site is supposed to be in Takeo province.
Below you can see a video made during the sessions at Barcamp Phnom Penh.
I will try to upload a higher resolution video later. This one is best for mobile phones.
- Login to post comments
- 11716 reads
- Printer-friendly version