Bedford Dad launches teddy bear into space to inspire kids to 'dream big'
It eventually landed over 40km away from the launch site!
Last updated 11th Aug 2022
A dad in Bedfordshire has launched a teddy bear to the edge of space on a weather balloon to inspire his children to 'dream big'!
Chris Tarpy, 50, launched the helium balloon complete with a teddy bear, parachute, tracking device and computer system to record flight data, from a park in Bedford last month with kids Luke, 12, and Maya, 10, by his side.
"The point of the project was to inspire kids and encourage them to dream big," says Tarpy, a company founder working in fintech who specialises in software engineering, "to show that seemingly impossible things become possible with creativity and hard work."
Tarpy chose a teddy bear as the "pilot" to make the project more relatable. It also added to the adventure when chasing 40-plus miles across the country to recover the teddy and the flight module.
Tarpy explains: “The basic flight principle is to use a helium-filled balloon that will produce enough lift to carry its own weight (800 grams in this case) - plus the weight of the payload (flight module plus teddy plus parachute)."
“As the balloon altitude increases and you get closer to space, the atmospheric pressure decreases. Without this pressure balancing the outward force of the helium, the balloon starts to expand - until it eventually pops.
“To slow the descent to Earth I attached a small parachute to the bridle (the arrangement of string attaching the flight module to the balloon), which stopped the module from being smashed to bits."
Since Tarpy was sending a large object potentially into the path of planes, he was required to get permission from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
“They actually have a form specifically for high-altitude balloons,” Tarpy says. “You need to give them lots of details about the flight - launch date, payload mass, ascent rate, descent rate, burst altitude - and it needs to be done 30 days in advance. Then they issue a NOTAM (notice to aviation) to all the local air traffic control towers. You also have to be contactable, to allow them the opportunity to cancel your launch if necessary.”
Tarpy and his kids were able to retrieve it - 40km from the launch site in Bedford, because of a tracking device he’d installed.
Tarpy says the bold experiment has changed the perception of his children Luke and Maya to science and maths.
“The kids loved it. Sending stuff to space is usually the preserve of outfits like NASA or sci-fi TV."
"So to make something that is seemingly impossible become reality was magical for them. They were also exposed to the scope of technological know-how that’s needed in the real world.
"The biggest success was a change in viewpoint on maths. Their perception on maths had not been positive, because they’d not seen the use of it."