STUDENTS at a Hereford school are today launching a 'near-space mission' in response to a challenge laid down by their new head of science.

Amy Mulkern asked pupils to send her a picture of Earth, taken from space when she started at the Robert Owen Academy in September 2015.

Several months later and the Robert Owen Academy 'Near Space Project' is in its final stage with the successful launch of a meteorology balloon with camera, GPS tracking and mobile phone providing live video stream of the initial ascent.

Year-11 student Declan Kinsella said: "This has been a great thing to do in school.

“First we thought she just meant download a picture off the internet. When we realised she meant that she wanted us to get a camera up in to space to send back images we were like – is she serious?”

Students worked in collaboration with the science technician, Rui Noutel on the project which saw them working in diverse teams to tackle problems as varied as searching for helium suppliers and live stream hosting through to fundraising and calculating the rate of descent and force of impact.

When asked about the project, Mrs Mulkern said; “I wanted something that could engage students from all years and use different skills: a real whole school cross-curricular project.

"We’ve had students working on everything from the maths through to drafting press releases and designing our project logo as well as building, assembling and testing.

"It’s been tremendous fun for everyone and we’ve learned a lot about space exploration and digital technology in the process.”

It is hoped that the balloon will ascend approximately 20 miles into the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere where the lack of pressure will cause the balloon to burst.

A parachute will then deploy and carry the insulated package safely to the ground.

It will take about four hours in total.

Live streaming allows students and other interested parties to watch the first two hours of the ascent.

GPS tracking systems will allow for the package to be tracked and hopefully recovered.

Depending on wind speed and direction the parcel could drift up to 300 miles. Permission has been obtained from the Civil Aviation Authority.

Andy Hubble, principal at the Robert Owen Academy, said: "The successful recovery of the parcel with our camera will the hardest phase because we’re going to need a bit of luck and goodwill from the general public.

“We are hoping that community groups will be able to help us by finding and posting back the camera, if it lands too far away for us to be able to recover it ourselves”.

Updates will be released on Robert Owen Academy twitter feed and website.

If necessary, local community groups will be contacted once the position of the parcel is known.

Visit http://www.roacademy.org/balloon-launch/ for coverage of the event.