Ascending to the edge of space

Since 2014, Brunel University's electronic and computer engineering department has teamed up with various partners (BBC, University of Cambridge, Bishop Ramsey school) to conduct near-space experiments. We have sent six missions to the edge of space to take pictures, videos, conduct physics and chemistry experiments and just have plain fun!

Under very challenging conditions we have successfully retrieved five of these missions with amazing results. We have recorded temperature, pressure, UV radiation, x-ray radiation and have even recorded cosmic rays hitting our cameras. We have ascended to 110000 feet and looked at the Earth curving, the beautiful blackness of space, and the thin layer of our atmosphere. We even took photographs of the sun setting behind the Earth’s curvature.

Each year we pushed the envelope a bit more and challenged ourselves to produce something more spectacular, ranging from extremely interesting to just plain silly! Look at the pictures and videos of our adventures below.

View on YouTube

View on YouTube

View on YouTube

View on YouTube

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Dr Konstantinos Banitsas - Dr. Konstantinos Banitsas has been a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Brunel University London since end 2005. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science, University of Portsmouth (1995), an MSc in Electronic Engineering, University of Portsmouth (1997), an MA in Education from Brunel University London (2011) and a PhD in Telemedicine from Brunel University London (2004). He is an active member within the Wireless Networks and Communications Centre research laboratory headed by Prof. Cosmas, handling the Telemedicine and Telecare part of the research. He is the author of numerous journal and conference articles as well as book chapters in the general area of telemedicine.

Partnering with confidence

Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.

Project last modified 28/06/2021