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Comment by Volpe | Hacker News Reader

Didn't some canadian kids send a digital camera into space, using a weather balloon?

They didn't seem to have any issues with competitors, exports, imported, radiation hardened CPUs...

My point, while seemingly irrelevant, is: All space companies don't have to be NASA. There a probably a gazillion things people could make markets out of that involve space: I would buy a "kit" that let me send small objects to space, or take photos of stars, or take photos of earth...

My secondary point is: Don't just poo-hoo the space industry, because you can't think of anything in that space. I'm sure the Computer industry was difficult to get into before PCs... but people did it.

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> Didn't some canadian kids send a digital camera into space, using a weather balloon?

No, they didn't. Weather balloons need an atmosphere to float in, and would've still experienced almost as much gravity as the ground (the force of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two objects). Such balloons are typically launched between altitudes of 18 and 37km. In 2002 a balloon did reach 53km but this isn't sufficient to be considered space and is still in the stratosphere.

The start of space is defined by the Kármán line[1] at 100km (62 miles) above sea level, although this is still technically within the thermosphere. The International Space Station orbits at 370km, in space but also in the thermosphere.

[1] - http://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=5086557&whence=item...

Yes, some kids did do this, but to pick a nit projects like those are usually to "near-space" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon

See also: - Lego Shuttle to Space: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bluQ4eOeBwo - How To Send a Weather Balloon into Space: http://blog.hartleybrody.com/in-space/ and http://blog.hartleybrody.com/found-balloon/ - Spanish Soccer Jersey in Space: http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/07/spanish-soccer-soaring...

Your point is fair though. There are a lot of different angles to approach the problem, but it is a very hard ahem space to play in.

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