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Earth from 100,000 feet: Sigma sent the fp mirrorless camera into near space

03 Oct

Sigma UK recently collaborated with the company Sent Into Space to send a pair of Sigma fp full frame mirrorless cameras into the upper atmosphere. Sigma 14mm F1.8 lenses were used on each camera. It’s a notable kit because it combines the world’s smallest and lightest full frame mirrorless camera with the brightest full frame 14mm prime lens available.

The Sigma fp cameras and 14mm F1.8 lenses were attached to weather balloons and sent up to an altitude of roughly 19 mi. (about 30.5km). At altitude, the cameras captured high-resolution photos and 4K RAW video of Earth.

No good marketing operation is complete without stunning media to share with prospective customers. Sigma UK published a video to document the process of sending Sigma fp cameras into near space and show off the amazing results of the project.

The launches took place in Sheffield and the first Sigma fp to gain altitude was dedicated to recording 12-bit 4K UHD Raw video and the second camera was dedicated to capturing 24.6MP still images. Each camera was part of a kit that includes on-board equipment to provide data and telemetry back to the Sent Into Space team back on the ground.

The balloons, filled with hydrogen, expand considerably during the ascent. As the atmosphere gets thinner, the gas inside the balloon tries to escape to fill the vacuum. At a certain altitude, the balloon will fail and burst, and the equipment will return to the surface aided by onboard parachutes. As Chris Rose of Sent Into Space points out in the video above, the payload will actually descend at up to 250 mph before the atmosphere gets thick enough to act against the parachute.

Each camera was sent into space with an attached 2TB SSD drive. Even with that much storage capacity, the fp couldn’t record 4K UHD RAW video for the entire flight. The stills camera was set up with an interval timer to capture a still image every five seconds for the entire journey.

To learn more about the Sigma fp, head to our First Impressions. For more on the Sigma 14mm F1.8 DG HSM Art lens and its applications for space photography, check out Jose Francisco Salgado’s ‘Astrophotography with the Sigma 14mm F1.8 Art lens’ article.

(DIY Photography)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Expanding the ISS: Inflatable Space Hotel Room Sent into Orbit

13 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

space hotel room

A new space hotel room will be the first addition to the International Space Station in years, part of a test to see whether inflatable rooms can serve as more compact and space architecture on demand, unlike rigid frame space hotel concepts.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) developed by an aerospace company in Las Vegas is comprised primarily of a light and flexible fabric that unfolds when inflated, creating a bubble-shaped room. The eventual plan: use this as a prototype for space tourism, creating housing when and where it is needed both attached to and beyond the ISS.

Launched into orbit with help from SpaceX, the module is lighter and more compact, thus more cost- and fuel-efficient to ship, and, when not in use: it can also fold back down for storage. A testing period over the next few years will help researching astronauts evaluate its performance, including its ability to withstand micro-meteoroid impacts, radiation and temperature fluctuations.