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Reader Submitted: Mini Balloon and Kite Mapping Kits for Aerial Photography

Seven years ago, during an environmental crisis—the BP oil disaster—and a media blackout, where information about the spill was being tightly controlled, hundreds of people came together to collect their own data. Using just cameras, attached to balloons or kites, the Balloon Mapping Kit was born, and with it, the Public Lab community.

7 years after “grassroots mapping”, Public Lab is back with an even more accessible Do-It-Yourself way to take aerial photos: Mini Balloon and Kite Mapping Kits.

At half the cost of the original, these kits are designed for portability and for a new generation of smaller GoPro-like cameras. The new Kite kit makes use of an extremely compact (but octopus-shaped) kite with no spars.