High School Students Send Rubber Chicken Into Space
Posted on April 21, 2012
High school students in Bishop, California sent a rubber chicken, named Camilla Corona, into space during last month's intense radiation storm. Camilla was exposed to high-energy solar protons at an altitude of nearly 120,000 feet. The students equipped Camilla with sensors to measure the radiation for an astrobiology project.
Camilla's payload also included insects and sunflower seeds, so they kids could see how they responded to the journey. You can read more about the experiments here. Camilla is NASA SDO's mission mascot. She can be found on Twitter, @Camilla_SDO.
Here is a video of Camilla at 119,000 feet after her propulsion system (helium balloon) burst and she was sent plunging back to Earth. Fortunately, Camilla had a parachute. Take a look: