Recently, YouTube host Reid Williamson sent a weather balloon to space with a very special “hitchhiker”: A physical dogecoin!
While Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is currently preparing for his big project of sending a physical dogecoin on the surface of the moon, Williamson decided to make a small project of his own as a tribute to the SpaceX top honcho.
The YouTube host used a helium-filled weather balloon to “launch” the dogecoin into space. But since it was just a weather balloon and not a heavy-duty rocket, technically, the coin just reached what meteorologists call “inner space” which is still within earth’s atmosphere.
The real outer space begins at 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, and weather balloons can only reach 42 kilometers.
The dogecoin’s journey into space
Williamson launched his weather balloon in Austin, Texas where his balloon reached 30 miles before popping out and landing on the ground. He attached a GPS to his balloon so he could easily track its exact location once it fell back to Earth.
Weather balloons are actually used by meteorologists to collect detailed weather data that cannot be detected using land-based apparatus.
Elon’s 50th birthday
The main reason why Williamson launched his “space mission” is to give Musk a special tribute for his 50th birthday.
Musk is known to be an active dogecoin advocate and even directly affecting its price just through his tweets. He is also preparing for a SpaceX moon mission in 2022 which aims to explore the moon’s untapped potential, and as a bonus task, to put a physical dogecoin on the lunar surface.
Image courtesy of Cointelegraph News/YouTube