Professor Piccard's Great Adventure In The Stratosphere -- Prof. Piccard and his assistant, M. Cosyns, lying on the ground exhausted just after landing. The change from the intense cold encountered during the journey to the summer heat an landing temporarily prostrated the intrepid scientists. When he and his companion Professor Cosyns landed in Northern Italy they collapsed in the heat after the sub-zero stratosphere temperatures. September 26, 1932.