A group of Australian scientists have fired a meat pie into the stratosphere in a world record attempt – and found a new but expensive way to cook the nation’s favourite pastry.
The beef savoury was sent more than 30 kilometres above New South Wales’ Hunter Valley on Saturday.
Engineers from the University of NSW used a helium balloon to float the pie to a height three times higher than the flight path of commercial passenger planes.
It reached the top one per cent of the earth’s atmosphere, where temperatures drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius.
Alex Herihly, an organiser with UNSW’s TechConnect Flashbuild program, said he was confident this was the highest a pie had ever been sent into the Australian sky.
‘We’ve submitted to the Guinness Book of Records and we’re waiting to hear back,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.
‘It’s certainly the highest pie we’ve heard of in Australia. Definitely the highest meat pie.’
Australian scientists have sent a meat pie (pictured) into space in a world record attempt. The beef savoury was sent more than 30km above the New South Wales Hunter Valley on Saturday
Researchers from the University of NSW used a helium balloon (pictured) to float the pie to a height three times higher than a passenger commercial aeroplane’s flight path
The pie was warm after returning to earth at Merriwa, a three-hour drive north-west of Sydney, as sun radiation warmed it up from the ultra-freezing temperatures.
‘Once it got back down, and we retrieved it from the tree, it was actually warm,’ Mr Herihly said. ‘It’s totally still edible.
‘We make the assumption it did freeze when it was up there.’
Mr Herihly said the demonstration was not just for novelty value but to show Australia could have a successful space program that could one day develop solar-powered satellites.
‘Generally speaking, we think we can do absolutely everything in terms of putting things into space,’ he said.
Next time, the researchers are hoping to send a pie further into space that will come back to earth ‘hot on re-entry’ instead of lukewarm.
Next time, the researchers are hoping to send a pie (pictured) into space that will come back to earth ‘hot on re-entry’ hot instead of lukewarm