Big Bertha

This is the real deal; until we graduated to 1500g balloons, these were our bread and butter launch setups.

Includes:

• 600g latex weather balloon
• Parachute
• Our favorite satellite tracker (cuts out around 10km then back in on way down... sometimes)
• 200g calcium carbonate
• 200g sulfur (design a high-altitude burner for this to make so2 in-stratosphere pls)
• Rubber bands
• Some reusable zip ties (always handy)
• <50 pound test line
• A printout of our launch checklist
• At least 2 pieces of lucky Make Sunsets schwag

You need to add:

• Spot subscription (if you want to track)
• Lift gas (helium unless you really are sure you won't blow yourself up with hydrogen)

You probably want to add:

• Electrical tape (after the rubber bands, to be extra secure)
• Some chunk of foam or something that floats (if launching where you might land in water). We've actually had good results recycling the box + foam the spot tracker comes in!
• Bulk sulfur dioxide, if you're going to do this a lot. Please don't do this unless you are safe about it, including an appropriate air filter. We use something like this (outside), and please do your own research here.
• Airtag or Pebblebee if you have Android to make finding payload easier (if you want to recover)
• Nozzle for lift gas and SO2. Here are the nozzles

Instructions on how to Cool Earth via Make Magazine.