Featherweight Weather Balloon

A group purely of amateurs created a lightweight weather balloon recently to travel new distances across the world.

The creators names were Ron (55) and Lee (32) Meadows who, as father and son, work together as swimming pool service repairmen.

The balloon, called "call sign K6RPT-11" was launched from a site near Silicon Valley on Sunday the 11th. It was one of the two balloons launched designed to reach high heights and then travel with the wind.

The balloon traveled an amazing 6,236 miles and eventually ended up falling out of the sky somewhere above the Mediterranean. It was traveling 35 mph at a height of 14,558 feet above the ground.

Here's what the weather balloon looked like right before the launch:

The balloon weighed about 3.5 pounds, which is what allowed it to travel so far and high.

The father and son are also previous record holders in that they made a latex balloon that traveled at an altitude of 136,545 feet, which broke the previous record by 1,500 feet. They also doubled their last run for distance with the "all sign K6RPT-11".

I really think this device could help us get better readings of weather even faster by allowing us to travel half-way across the world in one trip with a weather balloon.

Robot Geologist on Mars

Planetary scientists recently created a "robot geologist" rover they named Curiosity to explore Mars and attempt to find signs of life.

The rover can be easily landed by NASA because of its hovercraft sky crane and guided landing system built in to it. It also has 11 built in tools for examining rocks and looking for oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon, the four signs of life.

One of the scientists involved in the making of Curiosity, Ashwin Vasavada, says that the rover will be also be able to sense temperature, water levels, and the environments. This could play a big role in finding where life on mars could be (if there is any).

The machine is able to be controlled from 45 million miles away by NASA and has a drill they can use to collect samples.

Here's a simulated picture of Curiosity:

Curiosity is set to launch in August of next year at Cape Canaveral. The 15 foot saucer will land on mars with a 165 foot long parachute. It is also too heavy to install airbags so hopefully the scientists at NASA get the landing just right.

In conclusion, I hope that we will be able to learn a lot more about Mars. I believe we might even have some sort of a scientific breakthrough considering the machine can scan the rocks and bring back samples. The Curiosity is the first of its kind and I really believe it will be helpful to NASA.

Here's the site with all the information: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-11/mars-science-laboratory