As part of a science lesson involving astronomy and physics, Newser is reporting that children at Morecambe Bay Community Primary School in the UK launched a giant helium balloon on Tuesday last week with their cute, cuddly mascot, to see if they could send him to the edge of space.
The students were assisted in the project by SentIntoSpace, a British company that specializes in such educational programs. The students strapped Sam onto his spacecraft, along with the all-important GPS tracker and a GoPro camera to record the historic event, reports the Independent.
The launch took place on April 5 at a hotel in town and proved to be successful. The furry astropup’s balloon rose at a steady rate of 6.0 meters (19.7n feet) per second, eventually reaching a height of 15 miles into the sky.
Sam did make it to the edge of the final frontier, as the GoPro camera that went along with him recorded in a snapshot just before the helium balloon popped. Sam the dog, along with the camera and the GPS tracker plummeted 12 miles back to Earth through the atmosphere. Sam the dog is the smaller pooch in the following picture.
The spacecraft along with the camera and GPS tracker landed in a field near Burnley, about 30 miles from the launch pad. Sam was missing. School principal Siobahn Collingwood said, “I had an assembly the next day in which I broke the news. You could have heard a pin drop, there was silence and shock.”
The school principal said the children decided to launch a campaign with the local newspapers, but it has since gone global. “The children created history with the space launch and would love to see Sam the dog safely returned with tales to tell of his adventures,” Collingwood said.
Parents of some of the children have started a Facebook page and there is now a Twitter hashtag, #findsam, that has been trending. Chris Rose of SentIntoSpace.com, who worked with the children has continued to work with them on finding Sam. It has become quite interesting because as Rose says, “We do not have any data on the aerodynamics of a toy dog.”
To view the launch, please go to this Facebook page.
