For all you Pi fans, how's this for an "out of this World" story?



A Raspberry Pi computer has boldly gone where no other Pi has gone before.

High-altitude ballooning enthusiast Dave Akerman tethered one, complete with a webcam to photograph its progress, to a helium balloon.

The bare-bones computer managed to reach an altitude of almost 25 miles (40km) before the balloon popped and it returned to Earth.

The Pi sent live images throughout the flight and was safely retrieved by tracking its onboard radio transmitter.
Sky high

Mr Akerman decided to use a Raspberry Pi to control the payload on his near-space craft because its USB port made it easy to connect up a cheap webcam.

Prior to using the Pi, Mr Akerman had relied on payloads built around the Arduino microcontroller to power the sensor package lifted by the balloon.

These too can control a camera, however, said Mr Akerman they were much more expensive and harder to use than a familiar webcam.

"The Pi is not the obvious choice for this," he told the BBC. "I chose it because it was on my desk and I thought it would be a neat thing to use."

Using the Pi had introduced problems because it was relatively heavy, complicated and drew quite a lot of power, he said.

More? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18900862