The first launch of Astdroid was a great success and one of the most thrilling things I've done in my life. Watching that little bugger reach about 15,000 feet before it became less than a pixel in my vision was incredible.

However, the recovery of Astdroid was less of a success :( If you haven't already, read all about it here:
http://www.astdroid.com/2010/10/mia/

Yet, the project continues onward and there have been significant achievements in the software engineering. There's even a product spinoff now currently available to anyone who wants to tinker with what's powering Astdroid's tracking system in the Android Market called LiveTrax.

You can also read more about that here: http://www.astdroid.com/2010/11/a-slower-pace/

From the minute of successful funding to the first launch was an incredibly quickly progression. Having come away from an unsuccessful first recovery with lots of lessons learned the emphasis is now on slower and more precise. You'll continue to see updates, but they may be fewer and father between.

Rest assured, the Astdroid project has never waivered in its commitment to honoring it's backers with a success we can all be proud of!

It took a little longer than I'd hoped but the final approval from the FAA should be recieved in the next few days allowing the first launch of Astdroid to take place on Saturday, September 25th, at 9:00AM MST.

If you live in the Denver/Boulder area and would like to be there for the launch and recovery fill out the form here to be provided with the latest information (where, where, and any last minute changes).

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform...

More information, including a link to the live stream of launch can be found at www.Astdroid.com.

It's gonna be an exciting next few days spent in high gear! Thanks again to all the backers for making this possible!

Things are going quite well with Astdroid! Wanted to give a quick update this morning and remind you where you can follow the project in depth.

On Sunday, we were able to complete our first tests of the application, balloon, and payload. With the exception of a tiny bug in the Android app, things couldn't have gone better.

If you haven't already, stop by www.Astdroid.com to find pictures, video, and data from the testing and make sure to keep checking back. The next couple weeks are going to be pretty exciting as we are getting very close to being launch capable. The website is also a great way for anyone who's looking to participate to hop right in with their ideas. We've got a discussion group going as well as a disqus comment system that let's you comment without needing to create an account.

I'll leave you with a nice bit of press we got today at Wired.com, check it out: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/gallery-gadgets-in-space...

-dp

Hey folks,

So now that Astdroid has been successfully funded it's time to begin fulfilling some of the promises I made to you, the backers. One of those promises was to keep you updated and involved and thus, I've created www.Astdroid.com.

From here forward I expect Astdroid.com to be the place you can stay current with the latest developments and progress as well as a place to make your voice heard on the project.

You can check out the very first post detailing Astdroid as a kickstarter project here: http://bit.ly/bAAqR3.

Let me know what you think!

-dp

P.S. If anyone is in the LA or San Diego areas and is up at 6AM tomorrow, tune in to NBC. I've done/will be doing interviews with both affiliates there!

Hey folks,

Things just keep on getting crazier. Recent mashable article has garnered even more attention. Check it out: http://mashable.com/2010/07/12/astdriod/

The one negative comment I keep hearing is that this is ridiculous and we should be donating that money to worthy causes. Though I find that the meaning of the project itself isn't very ridiculous, I do understand that take on things.

Therefore, if there are no objections from my backers, I'd like to donate whatever budget remains after the goals of the Astdroid project are met to charity: water (http://www.charitywater.org). I'll be putting together a detailed spreadsheet of all the expenses so you can keep tabs on what's going on.

I'm anticipating a budget surplus and I think it'd be a great way to make use of it.

Thanks!

-Danny Pier

Thanks to all 66 of you backers, Astdroid has reached its project funding goal and beyond!

Now the fun begins!

I'm doing lots of preliminary work to get this thing off to a good start. I'm hoping to get together an in depth update for tomorrow.

Again, thank you all so very much. Can't wait to make you proud!

-Danny

The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind. As I'm writing now, the project stands $12 funded beyond its goal! I have so much to say and many specific people to thank for going far above and beyond, but honestly I can't even think straight right now! Thank you all! Stay tuned! Now the fun begins!

Hey everyone,

I'm completely thrilled and humbled by the response and attention Astdroid has received in the first couple days.

Here's some highlights if you haven't seen them already!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20007507-1.html
http://www.androidguys.com/2010/06/14/enterprising-geek-send-evo-space/
http://phandroid.com/2010/06/14/android-wants-to-go-up-in-the-air-professes-developer/

Due in large part to these blog posts and their followers, we're 23% funded in the first 5 days! It's gonna take some work, but I'm confident we can make it the 77% of the way remaining!

On top of saying "Thank You" I want to take some time and address some things that have come up via comments.

This has been done before

Yep... to an extent. I was greatly inspired by Robert Harrison's project, Icarus (robertharrison.org). That being said, it also isn't an easy thing to replicate, which further spawned the idea for Astdroid. Once the application is developed, I envision it to be about as plug-n-play as getting something into space gets at this point in time!

Your GPS won't work at that altitude

Unconfirmed. I've done lots of research and found nothing one way or the other about an imposed limit on a GPS altitude. If anyone is able to pinpoint me to concrete information on this it'd be much appreciated! Though, even if it is inoperable at a certain point, it's certainly not the end of the world (or the project), I've got some ideas in mind that can either negate or mitigate this as an issue.

You won't be able to communicate with horizontally directional cell towers

Unconfirmed, though it's true that cell towers do indeed broadcast horizontally rather than vertically, their signals still get pretty high. The reason you can't make a phone call on an airplane is not because you're too high, but because you're travelling at 500+ mph... a problem Astdroid won't have. Again, we don't yet know exactly what will happen and that's alot of what this is about!

Your phone will freeze!

Unlikely, though temperature is something we'll have to pay attention to. With the Android platform I can get the battery temperature of the device. It may not be a 100% accurate reflection of the phone as a whole, but it'll tell us alot. With a couple hand warmers and good engineering I think we'll be ok.

Your battery will never last!

Though the battery life of the Evo isn't astounding, it is more than enough to last the duration of the flight and recovery. We're talking less than 6 hours here.
You'll crash and lose all your data!

Nope, that's what a parachute is for. We'll be descending at a comfortable rate, and plenty slow enough to land safely and transmit data back on the descent.

Hope it doesn't land in the ocean or on someone's head

Me too! Considering I'm in landlocked Colorado, oceans aren't a huge threat. And since the phone will be drifting into Eastern Colorado, there's not alot of people to hit either. For that matter, I'll also be contacting the FAA and any necessary local authorities with each launch to ensure this is done in the safest manner possible.

This is STUPID!

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -Ghandi

Thank you all SO much for contributing, spreading the word, or merely taking a look. I cannot express fully what it means to me.

Thank you.

-Danny Pier