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REAL LIFE NEWS: RUBBER CHICKENS... IN... SPAAAAACE!

by Hazed

A rubber chicken called Camilla has ventured into space, reaching heights of 120,000 feet. One giant leap for chickenkind, surely!

Camilla was helped on her way by students from Bishop Union High School in California. The Earth to Sky student group launched the rubber chicken using helium balloons. They equipped her with sensors to measure radiation as part of an astrobiology project, and sent her aloft during an intense solar radiation storm.

Camilla actually went up twice. The first time was before the storm, on March 3, so the students could take “normal” readings. She then went up again on March 10, during the storm.

The group worked with NASA on the project, and here’s the report on the mission:

During the two and a half hour flight, Camilla spent approximately 90 minutes in the stratosphere where temperatures (-40 to -60 C) and air pressures (1% sea level) are akin to those on the planet Mars. The balloon popped, as planned, at an altitude of about 40 km and Camilla parachuted safely back to Earth. The entire payload was recovered intact from a landing site in the Inyo Mountains.

The payload, a modified department store lunchbox, carried four cameras, a cryogenic thermometer, and two GPS trackers. Seven insects and two dozen sunflower seeds also rode along to test their response to near-space travel. The seeds were a variety known to gardeners as “Sunspot” (Helianthus annuus).

The sensors which adorned Camilla’s spacesuit were the same radiation badges worn by medical technicians and nuclear workers to assess damage. After her flight, they were sent to a lab for analysis.

Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/students-send-rubber-chicken-on-a-space-mission-video.html

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