Sunday, October 3, 2010

Homemade spacecraft

I love this story/video/idea for 2 reasons:

1) It uses cutting edge technology to give the DIY'er a chance to be NASA
2) It uses age old ingenuity and, what some might consider "obsolete", technology

It merges the old and new to literally take us to a place we've never been. New tech is great, but never underestimate the analog brilliance of ingenuity, helium, and some latex...

This is a video a local father and son made. They wanted to see what space looked like so they create their own spacecraft and set off for the stars.

No, the father and son were not on their homemade spacecraft, they put a video camer on it to record the journey and an iPhone so they could use the cell-GPS to locate the camera when it returned to earth.

If it a great example of the fun, homemade science projects you can create. A little imagination and some help from parents can get you your own images of space. And the trip up and back.

Enjoy the video. For my 3rd-5th graders, does it inspire you in any way for your own Science Fair project?

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.



Cross posted on Mr. Casal's Computer Lab blog for my students...