MYSTERY surrounds the location of a West Yorkshire school’s space module which crash landed in Lough Erne on Tuesday last week.
The space module referred to as ‘Rish360’ was created by science students at Rishworth School, led by Head of Computer Science, Pete Bell.
The class had expected that their module, which was designed to record various kinds of telemetry for them to analyse, would burst above the Yorkshire dales,
However it managed to make it all the way to Lough Erne before the helium balloon have way and the payload along with its precious cargo came down.
Speaking to the Impartial Reporter this week, the teacher behind the inspiring science project explained that by under-filling the balloon with helium he and his class had unintentionally managed to achieve “neutral buoyancy”.
“That is something many other people might try to achieve and fail - we did it by mistake!” he said.
According to the Computer Science head, the class had fundraised for the project themselves.
“The whole idea is for the class to design and construct a payload made from a polystyrene box to provide insulation when it is up in the sky.
“We put inside it computer equipment which receives GPS signals from satellites above it.
“From the signals we can work out the speed it is travelling, its bearings, temperature, quite a lot of telemetry. 
“It is all broadcast back down to us using a radio transmitter on a frequency band we are allowed to use for this kind of thing.”
The payload included a model of a Formula One Schools Challenge Car, a camera, a badge which was specially designed by students at the school to remember a classmate who died last year, and a small toy dinosaur which belongs to Mr. Bell’s young son.
“When I came home last Tuesday my son told me: ‘Daddy, it was a bit of a silly idea to send my dinosaur into space wasn’t it?’.
“He is probably right!”
The aim of the mission has now turned into a salvage operation. 
Luckily for the school though, the people of Fermanagh have proved to be more than helpful.
And although their space module has not been located yet, Mr. Bell says he has been impressed by how amenable people from the area have been towards their plight.
“One of our teachers is originally from Armagh and she had her wedding at the Killyhevlin Hotel. 
She told us to make contact with people in Fermanagh because they are really friendly.
“The Lough Warden was very helpful and was quite positive it would be found if it was still floating.
“The local RNLI  has also contacted us through Facebook to offer their services too.
“But so far it hasn’t been found.”
Although the science experiment hasn’t quite gone to plan, Mr. Bell says the class have learned from the experience.
“Things don’t work out as you had hoped and I have encouraged the students to learn from what has happened.
“We are already planning for the next one.”
A representative from Enniskillen RNLI told the Impartial Reporter that they were hopeful of being able go out to the estimated crash site today (Thursday).