Nov 24, 2020 17:00:00

A camera that a Japanese high school student flew to the stratosphere with a balloon returned for over 8 years, and the shot video is being released uncut

On November 18, 2012,

eight students who belonged to the former Iida Technical High School Machinery Department in Nagano Prefecture took on the challenge of 'shooting from the stratosphere with a high-altitude balloon' as a high-altitude balloon research project, and Eiheiji Temple in Fukui Prefecture. I released a balloon from the town into the sky. Unfortunately, at that time, the balloons and the equipment used for photography could not be recovered, but on November 7, 2020, about eight years later, the photography equipment that had fallen was discovered by a forest management company in Saitama Prefecture. rice field. A valuable video taken from a balloon is released on YouTube by the people involved at the time when the equipment was safely recovered.

Camera discovery for the first time in 8 years «Minami Shinshu.jp
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abn Asahi Broadcasting Nagano »Prefectural News | Video captured by a camera that finds a balloon that was flown eight years ago
https://www.abn-tv.co.jp/news-abn/?detail=00030463

The challenge of eight high school students was to hang a foamed styrol container with a smartphone or video camera on a high-altitude balloon for meteorological observation, and to photograph the earth from the stratosphere more than 11 km away from the surface of the earth. In order to avoid airports, we set the drop point in the northern Kanto region and flew a balloon from Eiheiji Town, Fukui Prefecture, on a westerly wind.

You can watch the video of the balloon released in the sky on November 18, 2012 on YouTube.

I challenged shooting with a high-altitude balloon 20121118 Project research Iida Technical High School --YouTube


The balloon was released on the riverbed of the Kuzuryu River, which flows through Eiheiji Town. The red fluttering that can be seen between the balloon and the box is a falling parachute, and after the balloon breaks, the parachute opens and slowly descends to the ground.

When high school students with a styrofoam box equipped with a camera let go ...

The balloon begins to rise.

A balloon that rises steadily in the clear sky.

It was said that the position of the balloon could be confirmed with the GPS tracking application of the smartphone.

This is the location information tracked by the GPS app superimposed on the map of Google Earth. Looking at the course indicated by the yellow line and the altitude indicated by the blue line, you can see how the balloon rises toward the east.

However, when the altitude exceeded a certain level, it became out of the communication range of the smartphone, and the GPS application could not track the location information.

After this, the balloon went eastward and passed near

Suwa-gun in Nagano prefecture ...

I was able to confirm the location information again near the prefectural borders of Nagano, Gunma, and Saitama prefectures.

The balloon passes south of

Saku City , Nagano Prefecture, enters Tano District , Gunma Prefecture, and falls toward Yamanaka, Chichibu District , Saitama Prefecture.

However, when I checked the location information of the drop point, it seemed that I was out of the communication range just a short distance from the surface of the earth, so I could not find the exact drop point.

It seems that high school students went looking for the fall position in anticipation of the fall position, but the estimated fall range was quite wide, and it was not possible to find it even after a one-day search.

It seems that the people concerned at that time had given up on the discovery in the middle, but on November 7, 2020, a company that manages forests in Saitama Prefecture discovered balloons and boxes in the mountains of

Hiki-gun, Saitama Prefecture. From the contact information on the launched box, a telephone call was made to Tomoyuki Fukuzawa, who was in charge of the project at that time, and the equipment was returned to the people concerned for the first time in about eight years.

The video camera mounted on the Styrofoam box is also firmly preserved, and about 2 hours and 35 minutes of uncut video is released on YouTube from the moment the balloon is released to the moment it falls.

A video camera that was ballooned eight years ago (November 18, 2012) was discovered on November 7, 2020. Sideways camera (Iida Technical High School, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Project Research) Uncut --YouTube


The video begins with high school students in work clothes holding a styrofoam box just before releasing the balloon.

With a shout of '5, 4, 3, 2, 1!' ...

I left the box and the balloon started to rise.

The cheers and laughter of high school students saying 'Oh!' Are also recorded firmly.

The houses in the vicinity were also photographed.

After that, the balloon continued to rise in altitude while being swept by the wind, and rushed into the clouds about 4 minutes after the start of the movie ...

I reached the top of the cloud in about 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

A cloud like cotton is spreading under the balloon.

Eventually, it reached an altitude where the roundness of the earth could be seen.

The air gradually becomes thinner, and the sky changes from blue to deep black.

The image from the camera spins around, but you can see the clouds, the earth, and the sea far below.

It is a fantastic sight where you can feel the boundary between the universe and the earth.

The change appeared in the video at 1 hour 41 minutes 12 seconds from the start of the movie. The balloon burst at the same time as the buzzing sound. The altitude at this time is estimated to be about 32,000 meters from the surface of the earth, which means that we have succeeded in photographing the earth from the stratosphere.

The parachute opens as it falls ...

The box containing the camera and smartphone begins to descend.

It seems that the wreckage of the broken balloon is also descending.

As originally planned, I began to see the city of Kita-Kantou below.

Eventually the parachute heads for the mountains in the wind ...

I got caught in a tree and landed. No parachutes or photographic equipment were discovered over the next eight years, but the equipment was eventually recovered, allowing us to see valuable footage.