120,000 Feet on a Friction Clamp, MAKE. ART. NOW. Flies the Insta360 X6 Near Space

A year of weather balloons, cheap helium, and one brand-new 360 camera produced footage from roughly 110,000 to 120,000 feet. MAKE. ART. NOW. spent twelve months lofting Insta360 gear on 1,500-gram latex balloons aimed at a 115,000-foot burst, and the freshly launched X6 became the main camera for the last of those flights. Dual 1/1.1-inch sensors, 8K recording, 10-bit color, and horizon lock went along for a ride that included minus-70-degree air, a metal clamp that let go at 17,000 feet, and a neighborhood car crash captured in 360.

Payloads were kept fairly light, between 3 and 3.8 pounds, so he did not need to alert the FAA. Foam bases painted yellow provided as a base for the main camera, an X5 from previous flights, an Ace Pro 2 for behind-the-scenes photos, and some 4k 120fps burst grabs of the balloon popping, as well as a Go Ultra. External power comes from a USB box filled with Energizer lithium AA batteries; regular batteries simply weren’t up to the work in the cold. He placed hand warmers inside a 3D printed cage for one of the slow-motion cameras. The ripstop parachutes were 18 and 26 inches long, with the smaller one dropping quickly before cracking the foam, which was happily all it did. He needed to leave around 20 to 25 feet between the balloon and the payload to avoid the chute being tangled in leftover latex.

Getting balloons to hoist the cameras proved to be much more difficult than it should have been. He felt he had enough helium with 300 cubic feet, but leaks and excess weight kept appearing. Party City eventually hooked him up with tanks that were 80 percent pure after he replaced the welding grade regulators that kept bursting. The ascent pace was quite consistent, ranging between 2 and 3 meters per second. Spot trace GPS trackers, which cost roughly $140 total, reported back every 5 minutes until they reached the 40,000-foot limit. According to weather models, we’d land between 5 and 10 miles from the launch site. We had one or two relatively simple pickups, often simply a door knock to return our payload. One cargo ended up on a farm; it required a drone to find it, and a grappling hook failed, so we had to ask a neighbor to let us through the brush to retrieve it.

On his second trip, the X6’s metal clip began to loosen around 17,000 feet, causing the camera to slant downward. He then discovered on the tape that the same file recorded an automobile bending a neighbor’s railing 18 seconds after he let go, and the cops arrived about 4 or 5 minutes afterward. The kids enjoyed it so much that they were counting down the days until they could leave, but he advised his daughter to wait her time because he believes the boys had the most fun they’d had all year. All three cameras that really flew back worked well. The X6’s lenses are easy to replace, thus scratches were never a serious issue. He employed timed capture to keep the high framerate Ace Pro 2 from overheating, and the lithium cells and the X6’s own 2,600mAh battery lasted the entire multi-hour trip without issue.

Even with the payload swinging wildly, altitude views remained rather stable since the horizon lock maintained the image level, allowing the residences on the way up to be zoomed in without the frame rolling. He was also able to capture the balloon popping and final expansion in slow motion using a second camera pointing straight above. Temperatures near the tropopause were brutal on every battery and camera mount, but to his astonishment, the X6 continued to record without issue. After three launches, it was evident that the list of things to avoid for the next launch included: not using metal clamps, ensuring that the parachute has enough room to work, purchasing helium from a local provider, and double-checking your concentration on a large screen before filling the balloon.