Summary
This is a personal project that has attracted a lot of attention and help, and was broadcasted by channel ABC 11. In order to give my wife a big surprise at the wedding – one of the most important moments in her life, I came up with a crazy idea that launching a letter of my love declaration into near space and showing her the space video in the celebration. I have overcome unimaginable technical challenges with the help of the team, and finally got the video filmed from 10,000ft.
Main Challenges
- Difficult to find a romantic surprise that people have never done before
- I had limited knowledge and resources to implement the crazy space idea
Romantic Experience
Inspiration
An unprecedented idea usually comes from other fields
One thing entered in my vision – in Feb 2018, Elon Musk launched his Tesla Roadster as the payload of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. From the official video, a 1960s old song Space Oddity was played in the car stereo during the endless journey of the universe. A space dream from the last century, plus the most advanced technology in the world – I don’t know how people felt when they saw that scene, what I felt was – romance
Concepts
As a bride-centered design project, I made a concept for romantic experience – deliver a letter of my love declaration to near space with a camera filming all the way, reclaim the camera back to earth and surprise the bride with the space video in the wedding
Symbol of forever love
Sending our love message to the space, this is a perfect symbol that our love outlives us all
Recordable moment
The whole thing could be filmed and played for not only wedding but also for memorizing when we get old
Blessing from friends
The launching event can be held as a special ceremony witnessed by our friends
Make It Come True！
I didn’t have a $90-million budget to launch a rocket, but I did have a plan and finally made it happen!
Get more knowledge
- Got to know high altitude weather balloon is a affordable solution
- Understood how to calculate the ascent time, burst altitude, helium amount, positive lift, and payload weight
- Learned to make all the electronics working at extremely low temperatures
- Learned satellite GPS positioning
Ask for help from a team
- A space enthusiast helped to build all physical components
- A spatial expert helped me make a feasible plan
- A meteorologist helped to decide a good time to launch
- A tree climber accompanied to search the camera landed from space, and helped to get it down from a 90ft-high tree
Execute strongly
- I acted as launching executor and event host at a time
- I solved the countless technical failures that occurred in minutes before the launch
