Project’s rise, fall, and dramatic rescue in bid to capture Earth’s good side

It was no ordinary school project.

It set out for the stratosphere, crossed the Beara peninsula from a height of 25km, and was rescued by the Coast Guard all within the space of eight hours.

But that was the lengths eight science students at Terence McSwiney Community College in Cork went to in a competition with 100 schools across the world. All of them are vying to take the best photos of the Earth from space.

Their project, which involved a specially encased digital camera and GPS tracking device, set off from Caherciveen at midday yesterday.

Mike Crean at Met Éireann had helped the students by attaching their project to a weather balloon and tracking it as it rose to 25,000 metres, while simultaneously plunging to minus 60 degree temperatures.

The coldness burst the balloon as planned, releasing the parachute and sending it back down towards Kerry. It drifted south-westwards and was eventually tracked off the Cork coast at Baltimore.

The project looked doomed until the Valentia Coast Guard said it had been organising a training mission and a mystery object bobbing out at sea was the perfect target.

The rescue team was scrambled and the GPS signal was targeted.

The pupils’ handiwork was eventually retrieved shortly after 7pm last night. It is not yet known if the camera survived the rise, fall, and swim.

However, science teacher Lillian Heylin said regardless of the pictures, it was a great opportunity for the students to get involved in the contest run by Stanford and MIT in America. She said: “It’s an exciting project for all of us, students and teachers alike, and a great way of bringing science to life in practical and adventurous ways.”