New Low-Cost Video Camera Pointing Mechanism for Stratospheric Balloons: Design and Operational Tests

Quality of video recordings from stratospheric balloons is poor due to motions of the balloons gondolas. This chapter presents new low-cost camera stabilization and control system (pointing mechanism) that is designated specifically to be used on the stratospheric balloons. The system design is described and the results of test-flight of the prototype of the proposed system are shown.