This MSU video production course, led by an Emmy-winning TV journalist and documentary filmmaker, sounds very cool.
Students last Sunday launched a high-altitude "space balloon" with five high-definition video cameras and tracking radios, instructor Troy Hale posts on a College of Communication Arts and Sciences page with still and video images. It went nearly 20 miles high (about 105,000 feet) before descending.
"The balloon was tracked in real time by a team from InterMet Systems of Grand Rapids," Hale writes. "The team tracked it so well, that the chase crew was able to see it land three hours later" and recover the undamaged gear. An earlier launch from Detroit last November didn't go as well, ending with a Lake Erie splashdown and sinking after a 92-mile flight.
The first video below has a three-minute sample (dizziness risk alert) that students edited from hours of footage, while Hale describes the project in an earthbound clip below it. -- Alan Stamm
