Fly to space for $320!

May 30, 2012 by Jason Major, Universe Today
JP Aerospace's MiniCube program can send your stuff to the "edge of space"

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 ”,  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.

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 here.

Explore further: Mice, gerbils perish in Russia space flight

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User comments : 3

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GSwift7
3 / 5 (4) May 30, 2012
so, that's about 2x2x2 inches. That's really small. I wonder if the image above is an artist's concept or an actual in-flight photo from a previous flight? If that's an actual in-flight picture, then how cool would it be to get a cube and put some pictures on the outside of it and then give it to someone as a gift, like a kid's birthday or anniversary gift.
Terriva
1 / 5 (1) May 30, 2012
OK, now we can read a bit about cost of cosmic space debris danger

http://www.orbita...dex.html
GSwift7
1 / 5 (1) Jun 01, 2012
OK, now we can read a bit about cost of cosmic space debris danger


This is a balloon ride. It doesn't get to space. They go up and then back down. The whole thing is retrieved on the ground if possible.

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