Space may not be quite as far away as you think.

A California company, J.P Aerospace, is allowing anyone to send anything from a marshmallow to a small billboard into near-space on the cheap. The vehicle they are using is a small satellite that they lift into the upper atmosphere using nothing more than a pair of Helium balloons.

The Not So Final Frontier

Near-space is that no man’s land between 65k and 325k, above where most commercial airlines fly but still a little below orbiting satellites. It’s the land of high-altitude balloons and sounding rockets where you deal with most of the conditions of space while still having enough atmosphere to make unpowered reentries.

Sending an ad into space starts at around $100, the vehicle also has six insulated, mounted cameras so that you can get a birds eye view of what your brand looks like soaring in the upper atmosphere. For free, anyone can send a ping-pong ball sized payload. If you ever wanted to see how your latest science experiment would fare at -90 below zero in an environment buffeted by cosmic rays, now is your opportunity.

Overall, this is a really interesting experiment in democratizing “space” travel. While it might not be as flashy as Virgin Galactic, there is something about the idea of sending a ping-pong ball into near-space for free that seems almost as exciting.

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