Why I Sent My Miss America Crown to Space



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Okay, almost space. Near space. Above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere worth of space. TECHNICALLY “space” is generally defined as the Kármán Line (~330k ft, 60km), although NASA and the US Military define it as 12 miles below the Kármán Line because ‘Murica is a rebel. Or something.

To win my sash and see when I randomly send stuff to the stratosphere in real time (the whole launch was livestreamed on Instagram) make sure you’re following me on social media!

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MANY MANY MANY THANKS to High Altitude Science for making space science accessible to students and silly YouTubers alike. I highly recommend classrooms try this as a socially distant science activity this spring!

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ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL THINGS:
The scientific payload was an RTL SDR radio receiver recording spectrum data from FM broadcast stations as it ascended. This was a collaboration with my friend (and PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering) Kristina Collins, with the goal of submitting a paper to HamSCI eventually. (Collaboration means she did most of the payload and I did most of the get-it-to-the-stratosphere part)

We were able to track the payload in real time all the way to 112,00 feet because we flew an APRS transmitter using my Amateur Radio Callsign. This let anyone following me watch it in real time as well, it even flew over one of my fan’s houses! If you plan on launching a weather balloon, I HIGHLY recommend getting your HAM license so you can fly with APRS.

See also  DSW presents the 2011 Miss America Pageant, live on ABC on 1/15/11!

Chapters:
0:00-1:44 Intro
1:45-4:30 Pageant Backstory
4:30-8:08 Balloon Prep and Launch
8:09-11:24 Tracking the Balloon
11:25-13:32 Retreival
13:33-15:56 Flight
15:57-18:16 Data Overview and Ending..(read more at source)



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45 Comments

  1. so some points
    This obsession americans have with people skin colour? Your skin is the same colour as everybody else in that pagent.
    miss universe restricted to earth is not more strange that having world series baseball that only involves 2 countries in north america.
    At least with cricket the competition is on every continent. if you count great britain as part of europe and the carribean as part of america.
    I saw you had made a wooden rocket and i was slightly disappointed that you launched your crown with a balloon rather than a rocket.. maybe you can launch a sash into low earth orbit. with a rocket.
    loved the dress and almost matching mask. so appropriate in a quest for space video.

    and some questions
    i was wondering about the use of helium instead of hydrogen. Unless i am missing a clue hydrogen should give you more lift, so you should be able to use less gas for the same lift, leaving more room for expansion and therefore more height. The fire risk shouldn't be a problem as its not a long term proposition anyway. and hydrogen is much easier to bottle and is environmentally more responsible. Am I in error anywhere?
    also would hydrogen pass through the wall of the balloon?

  2. I absolutely love this video.

    I am a man "of a certain age" and I admit that your physical looks are impressive, but what made me subscribe and follow were your brains and enthusiasm.

    Keep doing what you are doing. You're inspiring a whole new generation of young female engineers and scientists that will propel the human species forward in so many ways. I can think of no higher calling. Thank you for pushing the boundaries of science and changing the way society thinks about women in engineering.

  3. I told my friends: "I found an underrated channel guys. She is beautiful and smart."
    They said "Yağdır koçum yağdır" (in English: Shut up and Take my money)
    Best wishes from Turkey.
    (BTW if you arrive to İstanbul somehow, write me down)

  4. One question? won't a lift of 5 pound be a bit too little since gravity change slightly as you go up, but so to lift and as you get higher the air is so thin that there is hardly any lift.

    Cool idea non the less so keep at it. And truthfully I wish I had the option do do all the things my mind comes up with, but sadly my current life situation sort of puts a hard stop on that. Currently I'm barely able to mod a simple piece of wood due to restrictions and limits where I live and it's driving me bonkers, so I make due på doing everything I can to get things right the first time I try and that slows everything down immensely. Imagine having to move and loosing all tools, work space and room to do stuff and you start to get an idea of my sad state right now, add to that the fact that every shelf I put up has to be modded to fit right because of weird choices done by the house owner. It's a nice place, but I miss a workshop so bad it hurts.

    And to use the only maker workshop in the area, about 15 minutes away, you have to be a member of something I can't join due to how student is explained. To me I'll be a student and learn the reast of my lfe, but I'm no longer a student in the eyes of the law, so I can't use the space and I can't claim just take any class to fix the issue. Then other rules kick in and what it boils down too, is the fact that you need to be a student at a specific school. Weirdly enough it's a nursing school… So I'm stuck doing home tweaks as silently as I can, this area is so quiet that it's like being in the forest, which is great, but disturbing said quiet. Yeah, it slows things down.

  5. So not long ago my cousin who lives in Ohio was arguing with his wife, and she said that she was the God given queen of the house, to which he replied then why hasn't God given you a crown. Almost on que a loud thump came from the roof. When they checked, there was a crown. Now my cousin's wife insist on being called her magisty.

  6. I have to wonder if this was at all related to that child who was pummeled to death with a tiara, having it embedded into their skull, somewhere adjacent to this on the same day during the same'ish time frame. Probably not… probably just a coincidence.

  7. They actually stopped holding "Miss Sweden" in 2008 – which I do feel good about – but if you do enter and win a beauty contest I can think of no better way to use the exposure than to celebrate science and send the crown to space. Kudos. Good job!

  8. This randomly came up on my feed today and it was one of those moments where I was like "On the one hand, the YouTube algorithm clearly knows me pretty well, but on the other hand how did it take it SO LONG to recommend this channel".

  9. You truly are one of the reasons that Ohioans are among the most notable celebrities in our country. I would rank you amongst the likes of Bob Hope and John Glenn. You're not just an inspiration to young women and girls. But to everyone. As a fellow Ohioan, I am very proud of you.

  10. First class demonstration of the thermal profile of the atmosphere. Well done Xyla Foxlin!
    Ground at 16C (lower troposphere.)
    Minimum temp = – 33C @ 12000m., the upper edge of the troposphere & lower edge of the Stratosphere.
    At 34000m. max. alt. (near the top of the Stratosphere), temp. has risen to -5,3C

    -5,3C is what J. Fourier called 'the temperature of outer space'.

    How many know that the stratosphere is ENTIRELY due to oxygen? In the stratosphere O2 is being split into 2 x O1 by ultraviolet (UV) from the Sun. It has nothing to do with ozone, ozone is only a byproduct of O2 + O1. Ozone does not absorb UV, it does absorb (and emit) infrared.

  11. great video, what kind of damage could the crown do dropping free fall from that altitude? What would be best case and worst case scenarios? Was it in the flight path of any flying aircraft? Were there any reports of a falling UFO? Based on the construction of the crown, how many pieces would it be in or would it turn to dust? Would mods did you do to make sure the gocams would last.

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