Teen engineers launch DIY weather balloon over Montana, lose it mid-flight

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Two young developers built and launched an independent high-altitude balloon payload called UpLink over Montana, following a prior launch with Hack Club. The 491-gram payload was designed to test insulation properties of 3D-printed filaments and transmitted 320x240 images via radio link during its flight. Despite successfully receiving data and images on the ground, the team was unable to recover the balloon after it came down. The project involved custom electronics designed in KiCad, original firmware, and fully open-source hardware and software published on GitHub. The writeup details their engineering process, lessons learned, and the logistical challenges that led to the payload going missing.

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