The world has changed much in 60 plus years.
Above and to the left, you have the first photograph of Earth from space as seen by a V-2 rocket in 1946. To the right of that, it’s remains a photo of Earth from space. Only this time, it’s a photograph born from balloons launched by spanish teenagers in 2009.
To be fair, balloons were launched in 1935 but they only managed to get a view of the curvature of the Earth. There’s no doubt that was headed by top minds of that day. The V-2 photos of the late 1940s flew higher and gave us an alien’s eye view of our lovely world in shades of grey.
Smash cut to 2009. Photos from low Earth orbit are achieved through low cost bits and determined students of science.
Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort managed to send their heavy duty £43 latex balloon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent.
Created by the four students under the guidance of teacher Jordi Fanals Oriol, the budding scientists, all aged 18-19, followed the progress of their balloon using high tech sensors communicating with Google Earth.
We can’t help but weep at the fate of our country’s(USA) space science education programs. Phil Plait has given us reasons to cry oceans of wtf over the Texas noise alone.
Is it to much to ask to encourage simple, and yet awesome, science experiments at a high school level and not waste time arguing over silly ideas? At this rate, while we rage over the next idol or vapid model, the rest of world will outpace us and meet the ambassadors of the universe. Depending on the country, the facts another country shares about us to interdimensional travelers may not be so kind.
(via medicmike, airspacemag, telegraph.co.uk)
