Developer Sends His Raspberry Pi into Near Space

Raspberry Pi has captured the minds of developers around the world. Despite the fact that it was designed for teaching kids the basics of computer science, the tiny $35 computer has found its way into the hearts of grown-up devs, too, each one trying something weirder or whackier than the last.

This week, the Raspberry Pi Foundation highlighted the project of one user in particular. The company says it received numerous emails regarding the work of Dave Akerman, who recently sent his Raspberry Pi into near space. Akerman used his Raspberry Pi along with a webcam, GPS, and a hydrogen balloon to send his little PC just shy of 40 km into the sky. At that point, the balloon burst and came back down to Earth. This isn't the first time Akerman has sent balloons to near space, but said Raspberry Pi offered something unique that he hadn't seen before.

"In almost all of my previous flights I used Arduino Mini Pro boards, and these are ideal – tiny, weigh almost nothing, simple and need very little power," Akerman wrote on his blog. "I looked at the Pi and saw none of these desirable features! What I did see though was a USB port offering quick, easy and inexpensive access to a webcam, meaning that for the first time I could have live images (SSDV) sent down by my payload – something that hasn’t been done very often."

You can check out all of the photos on the project on Dave's blog, along with information on how he did it.

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