Hack This: 24 Incredible Hackerspace Projects from the DIY Movement

Foreword: Support Your Local Hackerspace

At Maker Faire Detroit in the summer of 2011, I found a maker exhibit inside the Henry Ford Museum where a medium-sized helium balloon was rising and falling gracefully. When I talked to the group of makers, I learned that the five of them were members of the LVL1 Hackerspace in Louisville, KY. Their project was called White Star Balloon (whitestarballoon.com). As they told me proudly, the goal of their project was to accomplish the first successful trans-Atlantic crossing by a small robotic weather balloon. With perfect irony, they explained that the name “White Star” came from the shipping company that built the Titanic. As makers, they anticipated some failure before eventually succeeding.

As much as ...