Weekly Space Hangout: December 16, 2020 – John Powell Tells Us About PongSats and Airship to Orbit

Please welcome our guest tonight, John Powell, President of JP Aerospace, a nonprofit that launches student designed Pongsats (i.e., experiments that fit inside of a ping pong ball,) and other experiments to the edge of space using balloons. To date, over 80,000 students have participated in this program with plans to expand it even further.

Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: December 16, 2020 – John Powell Tells Us About PongSats and Airship to Orbit”

Fly To Space For $320!

JP Aerospace's MiniCube program can send your stuff to the "edge of space"

[/caption]

Ok, at 100,000 feet it’s not really “space” but for $320 USD JP Aerospace is offering a very affordable way to get your research experiment, brand statement, artwork or anything you can imagine (and that fits into a 50mm cube, weight limits apply) into the upper atmosphere. Pretty cool!

Touting its program as “stomping down the cost of space”,  Rancho Cordova, California-based JP Aerospace (America’s OTHER Space Program) is offering its MiniCube platform to anyone who wants to get… well, something… carried up to 100,000 feet.

The plastic MiniCubes are each 1mm-thick, 48mm wide and 50mm high. Their bases have a standard tripod mount, and the MiniCubes can be cut, drilled, printed and/or modified within parameters before being mailed back to JPA for flight. Once the MiniCubes are flown, they are returned to their customers along with a data sheet and a CD of images from the mission. All for $320!

Again, it may not technically be “space”, but the view’s not bad.

Where MiniCubes go: a photo from a JPA balloon platform (JP Aerospace)

At the time of this writing there are 20 spaces available for the next JPA high-altitude balloon flight on September 22.

Find out more about JPA, MiniCubes, size specifications and how to purchase a space on the next flight here.

All images via JPAerospace.com