Step-By-Step, as told to PM by Lee and Yeh:

1. Find A Suitable Launch Site

"The site should be relatively flat with no obstacles such as trees or light poles that could snag the balloon after launch. Also, be sure not to launch near military installations. Stay at least 100 miles away."

2. Check the Weather

"Weather should be completely sunny with minimal wind. If it's not bright enough, the pictures will be underdeveloped. Minimal wind decreases the chances of blurring and reduces the preparation needed to launch a balloon."

3. Alert the FAA

"Be sure to notify the FAA at least 24 hours before launch. Technically, balloons under four pounds are unregulated. But notifying the FAA decreases your chance of flying into restricted airspace."

4. Set the Camera

"We used a standard point-and-shoot camera and achieved automatic triggering with CHDK software. Shutter speed is a very important factor in the quality of the pictures. We used 1/800s shutter speed and got excellent results."

5. Set the GPS

"The phone messenger sent the GPS coordinates of the landing location to a website we had (go to www.instamapper.com or www.accutracking.com for more info). Without GPS, it would have been impossible to retrieve the camera and its awesome pictures."

6. Get Some Extra Charge

"We found out in our tests that the battery life of the phone was too short for the predicted flight time of the capsule. We decided to supplement the battery with a Duracell USB charger powered by Lithium AA batteries. These are specially designed batteries that have the ability to withstand extreme temperature."

7. Pack Your Capsule

"We had a Styrofoam cooler (2x3 foot) with a detachable lid. We used an X-acto knife to cut holes in the container: one for the camera lens, one for the antenna. Placing the camera lens on the side allows for horizon views, while a hole in the bottom gives ground views. We used zip ties and hot glue to properly secure the electronic equipment to the box. We also used zip ties to attach the parachute to the capsule and rope between the parachute and the balloon. Put plenty of newspaper in for insulation and crumble up some aluminum foil to act as a radar reflector so pilots can see the capsule and steer clear of it.

8. Put Helium in the Balloon

"We did a lot of research to decide how much helium to put in the balloon. It varies depending on the size of your balloon. Each cubic foot of helium can lift 28 grams. Each pound of free lift would mean 300 feet per minute of ascent rate. Increasing the free lift and therefore the ascent rate decreases the flight time of the balloon, making it less likely for your electronics to run out of battery power. However, too much helium in the balloon could make the bursting height too low."

9. Test Prior to Launch

"Test everything component by component. Make sure the parachute works and that the impact felt by your devices is minimal. Make sure that your camera works at freezing temperatures. We put ours inside of a freezer to test it. Also, to ensure a soft-enough landing, we put eggs inside of our capsule and dropped the capsule from the top of a 5-story building. When the eggs didn't break, we were convinced that our device's landing would be sufficiently soft to not damage the hardware or anyone nearby."

10. Up, Up and Away

Time to let it go and hope for the best. Keep track of its progress using your mobile devices.

11. Go Find It

"Given the launch location, predicted maximum altitude and time of launch, this website gives a general idea of the landing location: http://weather.uwyo.edu/polar/balloon_traj.html.

Since you're finding it via cellphone, the capsule must land in an area with cell coverage. To increase our chances, we turned on cell tower location transmission. This allows the phone to send off the location of its cell tower if a GPS location cannot be fixed. If you have a more generous budget, go with the SPOT satellite messenger. Since it communicates through satellites, it can operate almost anywhere."

Warning: "Check with the FAA to ensure you're not launching into restricted flight zones and that your payload isn't over the five pound limit. Also, use a balloon-trajectory predictor to predict the locations where the balloon will go on the day of your flight so that you don't have it falling in the middle of a city, which could be quite dangerous."

Glossary:

CHDK (Cannon Hack Development Kit): Software that allows your camera to do things like continuously take pictures every 5 seconds or have a really fast shutter speed.

Free Lift: A term used to describe the difference in the amount of lift provided by helium and the weight of the capsule.

Here's a time-lapse video of the camera's journey:

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