All your high altitude base are belong to us...

Well I've been thinking about this insane project for several months now, and as of Spring 2016 I finally decided to invest the time and money to see if I can pull it off.

My motivation is simple: I like photography, especially the more technical stuff, and aesthetically speaking I like low-light images of cities, mountains, and sky. I want to get some pristine images and video from the edge of space, or as close as I can get. Given the recent emergence of VR video, it might even be fun to capture 360-degree HD video and "take a look around."

The interwebs are full of people who have sent small cameras up on weather balloons and gotten some images, such as here and here and here. Occasionally they get lucky and are able to pull a decent still photo or perhaps a few seconds of usable video. But the majority of video clips are nausea-inducing due to their lack of stabilization. At lower altitudes the winds wreak havoc. At apogee the bursting of the weather balloon sets the camera tumbling. Anyone who even attempts such a feat has earned some serious geek cred, but there has to be a better way...

If there was any significant atmosphere at 30Km altitude the camera could be stabilized by aerodynamic forces, perhaps like a quadcopter drone with propellers. Alas, the air at 30Km is as rare as hen's teeth, and to actively stabilize a camera platform you'd have to employ one of the strategies used by spacecraft, such as momentum wheels or reaction control jets.

After seeing this project by some students at Portland State (nice job guys!) and boning up on the engineering behind various spacecraft systems, I concluded that a cold gas reaction control system or RCS was probably the best candidate in terms of minimal mass and maximum simplicity. Of course, simplicity is a relative term...

In the many months until launching the HAPP and getting some nice footage to share on this blog, I'll periodically post some of my ground-based work just to keep the creative juices flowing. Many of the pics are also available on my general photography site here.

For now, enjoy some summer star trails over Traverse City, Michigan...