Grassroots Mapping is a series of participatory mapping projects involving communities in cartographic dispute. Seeking to invert the traditional power structure of cartography, the grassroots mappers used helium balloons and kites to loft their own “community satellites” made with inexpensive digital cameras.

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PLOTS adoption of the CERN Open Hardware License

March 9th, 2012 by warren

Hello Public Labbers and Grassroots Mappers!

To date, the documentation and open science literature we've made as a community has been published under a Creative Commons ShareAlike license, allowing anyone to reuse, remix, adapt, improve, and redistribute our works. Today, the PLOTS Web working group would like to propose that we as a community adopt a separate license for our hardware designs, and after much consultation, we'd like to adopt the CERN Open Hardware License.

read more

PLOTS adoption of the CERN Open Hardware License

March 9th, 2012 by warren

Hello Public Labbers and Grassroots Mappers!

To date, the documentation and open science literature we've made as a community has been published under a Creative Commons ShareAlike license, allowing anyone to reuse, remix, adapt, improve, and redistribute our works. Today, the PLOTS Web working group would like to propose that we as a community adopt a separate license for our hardware designs, and after much consultation, we'd like to adopt the CERN Open Hardware License.

read more

Dual camera KAP rig

February 22nd, 2012 by cfastie

Here is a prototype rig that performed well on its maiden flight. The design might be appropriate for matched visible/IR cameras for vertical photography, like the Canon A495s from the Balloon Mapping Kickstarter project. For such a use, it would require the addition of an intervalometer to trigger both cameras simultaneously. I am not yet sure how to add that function.

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Dual camera KAP rig

February 22nd, 2012 by cfastie

Here is a prototype rig that performed well on its maiden flight. The design might be appropriate for matched visible/IR cameras for vertical photography, like the Canon A495s from the Balloon Mapping Kickstarter project. For such a use, it would require the addition of an intervalometer to trigger both cameras simultaneously. I am not yet sure how to add that function.

read more

KAP Flight over Pacifica State Beach, CA

February 20th, 2012 by MicheleTobias

Alex Mandel, Michele Tobias, and a couple of others photographed the foredunes at Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica, CA, using a kite aerial photography rig. The kite was a Skyhook 30 outfitted with an SLR camera. The wind was strong - about 25-30 miles an hour - which allowed the kite to lift the heavier camera. The flight went well, but there were some minor concerns. The biggest concern was that this kite needs a more substantial tail than we had (a home-made drogue tail about 15 inches long) in higher winds to keep it from waggling back and forth, swinging the camera.

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KAP Flight over Pacifica State Beach, CA

February 20th, 2012 by MicheleTobias

Alex Mandel, Michele Tobias, and a couple of others photographed the foredunes at Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica, CA, using a kite aerial photography rig. The kite was a Skyhook 30 outfitted with an SLR camera. The wind was strong - about 25-30 miles an hour - which allowed the kite to lift the heavier camera. The flight went well, but there were some minor concerns. The biggest concern was that this kite needs a more substantial tail than we had (a home-made drogue tail about 15 inches long) in higher winds to keep it from waggling back and forth, swinging the camera.

read more

Picavet PET rig

February 5th, 2012 by mathew

A Picavet rig is a very common type of KAP/BAP rig, I've added it to the juice bottle in a fairly simple way, using 1/2" key rings.

Picavet Juice bottle

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Picavet PET rig

February 5th, 2012 by mathew

A Picavet rig is a very common type of KAP/BAP rig, I've added it to the juice bottle in a fairly simple way, using 1/2" key rings.

Picavet Juice bottle

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Aurora Tang’s Balloon Closing Method

February 5th, 2012 by mathew

This is Aurora Tang's method of sealing up her balloons. I think its the best I've seen. It was developed during a project to document Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty with the Getty Institute. She has used it extensively for landscape photography.

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Aurora Tang’s Balloon Closing Method

February 5th, 2012 by mathew

This is Aurora Tang's method of sealing up her balloons. I think its the best I've seen. It was developed during a project to document Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty with the Getty Institute. She has used it extensively for landscape photography.

read more