lpetrich
Contributor
He wanted to observe for himself what our planet's horizon looks like when above the clutter of nearby objects.Balloon with GoPro to Near Space - YouTube - this is one of oodles of similar videos that one can find online.
Mad Mike was not rationally interested in the subject. No one who is rationally interested builds a steam powered rocket, then gets in the fucking thing, then blasts it off from the back of his truck, all the while doing so when information is readily available.
What I linked to is the result of a way of making those observations: send a video camera into the upper atmosphere with a balloon. It's not very expensive, and it's cheaper and easier than building one's own steam-powered rocket. It's also a heck of a lot safer.
A steam-powered rocket is not as absurd as some people here seem to think it is. It's a tank that one fills with steam with a valve and a nozzle at one end. Open the valve, the steam comes out, and it pushes the tank forward. It won't get much exhaust velocity compared to an orbital-booster rocket, but it will work, and it will be much easier to build.