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SPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER

Kit Newell, Innovation Partner burst the balloon, and the phones nervous they might not survive
Manager at the Bullitt Group, would plummet back to earth. the extremes of space. As with
shares, “We’re always looking any phone, if they get super-hot,
for really extreme ways to Sound simple enough? they shut off. In contrast, extreme
show just how tough our Cat Perhaps not. low temperatures will drain a
®
phones really are. So, when the battery really quickly. Truth is,
students contacted us about The biggest problem with this we didn’t know how they were
sending one into space, we were method is that it’s common for going to react.” But both phones
always going to say yes.” weather balloons to land in survived, complete with their video
inaccessible places where they footage of the whole journey.
The project gave the University can’t be retrieved. The problem
Collegiate School (out of Bolton, was solved by enlisting the help The final word has to go to Nathan
England) students real world of David Akerman, a high altitude Vautier, CEO, Bullitt Group. “This
experience studying how Cat balloon expert. Using his software, was a fascinating project, and
phones are designed to cope with he collated Met Office data with the images captured speak for
impacts and extreme temperatures. the speed and direction of the themselves. It just goes to show
It also gave them the ability to wind at different altitudes to predict space is not just for billionaires!”
test a device first-hand that’s where the balloon would fall.
designed to operate in hostile Plus, if Cat phones can survive
environments. And ultimately, fuel Attached to the balloon was a a round trip visit to space, just
their imagination on how to design rig containing two Cat S62 Pro think of what they can survive
products for such specific needs. phones facing one another. One on an average worksite!” ■
would record in standard video.
As the students’ budget didn’t Meanwhile, the other would shoot
stretch to rockets, the plan was to thermal images to document
launch the Cat phones by weather the extreme temperatures.
balloon. The phones would then
float up to the edge of space where Kit goes on to explain. “I felt
the atmospheric pressure would confident the phones wouldn’t be
physically damaged, but I was

Capturing the beauty of the English
countryside on the way to space.
The two Cat S62 Pro cell phones return
to Earth having recorded their journey.
The student of University Collegiate
School preparing for the launch.

Cat Magazine 9