[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Rockets are certainly more impressive at takeoff. You can direct to specific spots quickly with larger payloads like nuclear payloads.

Balloons are cost effective for weather and science projects. Where they go and come down depends on the vagueries of the wind.

From:

http://spaceweather.com/

“MARS MICROBES AND MOON FLOWERS: Astrobiologists have long wondered if halobacteria, a terrestrial extremophile with a special talent for shielding itself from UV radiation, could survive on the planet Mars. To find the answer, the atmosphere. On April 1st, these samples reached an altitude of 110,500 feet:students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been flying halobacteria onboard balloons to the top of Earth's”

The students’ link is here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Earth-to-Sky-Calculus/174490502634920

Space Weather is a good site for aurora and other astronomical phenomena.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Oops! Doubl-ble pos-ost.