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The Pelican Case-Project Icarus

As an offender, I agree with Josh's comments on two sentences and a video doesn't qualify as a post, and neither does two pictures with no words, so here are the latest updates on my space picture project.

For my project Icarus, I'm following the step by step guide set up by these MIT students. The components seem simple, box, camera, GPS tracker, balloon, parachute. As most of you already know, I've secured the SPOT messenger GPS tracker and according to Len Youden, General Manager of Yamnuska Mountain Adventures, it's the right decision. GPS, check.

As for the balloon and parachute, I've ordered the set from Kaymont, who is Kaymont ? Well, let's just say the US government secures their weather balloons from Kaymont, check out this reliability page. Balloon, parachute, check.

The two items I'm sort of scrambling for right now are the camera and the box, let's talk about the box first.
As the MIT guys suggested, using a styrofoam cooler definitely has advantages, namely cheap and the ability to keep temperature. However, after seeing some after pictures, I started to worry about the contents of the styrofoam box, so I started thinking what's a really good protective case.  The answer is the Pelican case, which is water/shock proof in any way imaginable except when it's under attack by a shark or a child under 5. I guess that pretty much settles the argument of parenting, it's like living with a shark until they're 5. 

So I wrote a letter to Pelican asking if they're interested in sponsoring a case, since I thought they'd probably be interested in seeing the results of a 100,000 feet landing and what it would do to their box, Pelican was gracious enough to grant my wishes.  Check out this video on Pelican