Charity

Rowing to the Edge of Space!

To raise money for the City of Bristol rowing club's new proposed Clubhouse, club member Dave Curtis decided what better way than sending a Lego Rowing Spaceman called Alan in Bristol Rowing Green colours up into space!

He was named 'Alan' after Alan Campbell the Olmpic Rower! City of Bristol Rowing Club also tweeted the real Alan and immediately got back a glowing endorsement! (we also Tweeted Felix Baumgartner who did the recent and frankly impressive Redbull Spacejump)

So on 21st October 2012 with 2 fellow aerospace engineers consisting of Dave Curtis and two friends, Drew Graham and Chris Driscoll sent a large Meteorlogical Weather Balloon to 37km above the Earth (similar altitude to the recent Redbull Space jump) in an attempt to capture the curvature of the earth where the blue of our atmosphere merging into the blackness of space. Suspended from the balloon is a large parachute and payload (polysterene box containing photographic equipment and gps trackers).

 The Balloon eventually bursts sending Alan into a freefall untill the parachute deploys when the air is thick enough at lower altitude.

All this wouldn’t be complete without approval from the Civil Aviation Authority who granted us permission to launch in Tewkesbury to ensure it wasnt a risk to passing airplanes.

As a result of this feat Dave is trying to use it  to raise awareness of the clubs campaign to raise funds for Bristol Rowing Clubs new Boathouse so please forward this to as many people as you know and get them to donate!

You can see a summary video of the project here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz5BjisRoG8

Thanks!

Dave

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