A WEATHER balloon launched to travel 100,000ft high as part of a 10-year community arts project attracted over 100 on-lookers in Yate.


Crowds of people gathered on Yate Common to watch a weather balloon filled with helium launch as part of an innovative arts project called ‘A Decade with Mars.’


The project is by Bristol-based artists Ella Good, 28, and Nicki Kent, 31 and is inspired by scientific research and exploration of Mars, involved with working with a group of non-astronauts who applied to the Mars One Project to become the first people to colonise Mars.


These potential space voyagers live in cities across the UK and to celebrate the start of the project the artists launched a weather balloon on Yate Common with help from pupils from St Paul’s Catholic Primary School and Tyndale Primary School in Yate, and Air Balloon Hill Primary School in Bristol.


The balloon is estimated to have reached around 70,000ft high.


Miss Good said: “The project is all about space travel, so we thought we’d mark the beginning by trying to get as close to space as we can ourselves.


“We have met several people around the country who made applications to be part of a proposed one way trip to Mars, which is meant to go in 10 years' time. Over the next 10 years we’re going to keep meeting these people again and again, to document what changes in their lives and to see what changes in the world.


“Some of the launches are in cities where these potential astronauts live, and the Bristol one is because this is our hometown and so we wanted to mark the beginning here too.


“The balloon will travel to near space and if all goes well a mounted camera will capture some amazing images.


“The launch had a good turn-out, about 100 people attended, including the mayor of Yate, and  we got the balloon back on Saturday evening.  


“It was found in a place called Miskin, just outside Cardiff, by a family called the Williams and had landed on the dad's car.”


Kerry-Anne Barber, class teacher and science co-ordinator at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School, said: "Our children are living through a very exciting period of space exploration and development.

"I wanted them to be part of the ‘A Decade With Mars’ project so that they could gain a greater understanding about the mission to Mars and become more knowledgeable about its implications for their future.


"It is important for children to understand how little we actually know about our wider universe, to appreciate the discoveries of space exploration being made in their lifetimes and to inspire them as future scientists to discover so much more as they become pioneers of the future."


Over the next 10 years the artists will work with school children, community groups and artists and they will explore how we live now and how we might live in the future.

To watch a video fo the launch from Yate Common visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h9_QE1jQ00&feature=youtu.be.