On August 16, 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped from a balloon at 31,300 m. He fell for four minutes and 36 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 988 km/h before opening his parachute at 5,500 m. He set world records for the highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest drogue-fall and fastest speed achieved by a human being passing through the atmosphere.

Below are sketches of a skydiving robot which will attempt to duplicate Kittinger’s dramatic jump. The robot will be released from a weather balloon. The principle of parachute ejection is the same as for model rockets. The first prototype of the robot has a micro controller, mini DV and tracking device on board. The tracking device is a modified 0.5W walkie-talkie. The receiver walkie-talkie will be equipped with a Yagi antenna.