JP Aerospace Offers Discount Cargo to the Edge of Space

    RANCHO CORDOVA, CA, June 23, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Cutting edge research and DIY experimenting is taking place not in orbit around the Earth but in the no man's land between sky and stars. The area commonly called 'near space' or the 'edge of space' is just twenty miles over our heads. High altitude balloons are used carry experiments, cameras and sensors to this area of black sky, extreme cold and the curve of the Earth looming below.

The problem is getting there.

Flight to the edge of space is a complicated project. It involves getting a balloon and helium, building tracking systems, parachutes all that need to work in a harsh environment. The greatest challenge is finding your experiment after it lands sometimes hundreds of miles away.

Now for just $320 a researcher or student gets a little five centimeter wide plastic box. They put their project inside and mail it to a small California aerospace company.

The box is called a MiniCube. A MiniCube is like a miniature shipping container, but instead of the high seas this container heads skyward. Instead of cargo ships MiniCubes ride on JP Aerospace's high altitude balloons and airships. Just as shipping containers revolutionized ocean going cargo, MiniCubes are changing the way researchers and experimenters reach the edge of space.

After the flight the MiniCube is returned to the experimenter along with data about the flight and on board video. MiniCubes can be used for research, commercial applications, art, inspiration or anything imaginable. Anyone can run their own space program.

MiniCube is a follow on to the hugely successful PongSat program. Over 6,000 student PongSat experiments have been carried to the edge of space all inside ping pong balls.

Eight MiniCubes have flown so far. JP Aerospace is scheduling four MiniCube flights a year each carrying up to seventy-five MiniCubes.

The next MiniCube mission to 100,000 feet happens on September 22, 2012.

Pictures of MiniCubes at the edge of space and more details are available at: http://www.jpaerospace.com

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