A BU Business student has created a space probe company that has taken selfies in the stratosphere.

BA (Hons) Business Studies with Enterprise student Sam Harrison has set up the company, which sends probes up into space to conduct research and provide experimental marketing for businesses.

Sam, who is currently on placement with a software start-up company in California, has already successfully launched a probe 89,000 feet up into the stratosphere using an Indian weather balloon.

He said: “The first probe was partly paid for by a company in California to take the first ‘selfie’ in space.

“Future vehicles could be used for a huge range of things such as marketing activities, biological research into cosmic radiation and how this affects cells, for example.”

Sam has been supported by BU’s Global Horizons Fund, and received funding through the scheme to study in China, India and Australia, before heading to California.

He said: “The Global Horizons Fund has been incredibly helpful and I cannot be thankful enough for their financial support.

“I think having these incredible opportunities hugely accelerated my own personal development, and I also found getting the chance to live in another country for an extended period of time hugely beneficial. I don’t believe that I would be where I was today had it not been for these experiences, which were largely funded by the Global Horizons Fund.”

He came up with the idea for the space probe company while at an airport, waiting for his US visa to be approved.

“I was stuck in a layover at Los Angeles airport and came up with the idea. Thankfully, my visa did get sponsored and I’m now living back in Silicon Valley.

He added: “I love doing my placement in California. The amount of opportunity out here for young people is incredible – living here literally gives you the feeling that you can accomplish anything.”

Sam is now working on developing the technology and exploring ways in which the probes could be used to conduct low-cost research.

“We are in the early stages of designing some new technology to expand our near space capabilities,” he said.

“Here in California, a small team of us is also building a small multistage rocket as well as some other rocket technology

“I plan on turning this into a fully-fledged business, with the main objective to fulfil our clients’ marketing, functional or scientific needs.”

Originally published on BU News