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Antenox
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Reged: 10/10/08
Posts: 104
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
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MIT students launch $150 space camera
Bespoke is old hat. Off-the-shelf is in. Even Google runs the world’s biggest and scariest server farms on computers home-made from commodity parts. DIY is cheaper and often better, as Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh found out when they decided to send a camera into space.
The two students (from MIT, of course) put together a low-budget rig to fly a camera high enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth. Instead of rockets, boosters and expensive control systems, they filled a weather balloon with helium and hung a styrofoam beer cooler underneath to carry a cheap Canon A470 compact camera. Instant hand warmers kept things from freezing up and made sure the batteries stayed warm enough to work.
Of course, all this would be pointless if the guys couldn’t find the rig when it landed, so they dropped a prepaid GPS-equipped cellphone inside the box for tracking. Total cost, including duct tape? $148.
How long do you think before we have people on this forum duplicating this feat? 
EDIT: Looks like they weren't the first:
Kids Send a Camera 20 Miles Up and Bring Back Pictures of Space
Edited by Antenox (09/15/09 06:28 PM)
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Gregk
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Reged: 11/19/06
Posts: 1450
Loc: Gilbert Arizona
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That's awesome Which I had thought of it
I'm wondering thought what the FAA would say
greg
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Igor
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Reged: 04/20/06
Posts: 126
Loc: Croatia
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Wish I have money (or enough helium  ) to send modded DSLR and take wide angle pictures of Milkyway from space
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walt r
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Reged: 02/13/07
Posts: 3460
Loc: Doylestown, PA
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Quote:
That's awesome Which I had thought of it
I'm wondering thought what the FAA would say
greg
If they did it by the book then FAA clearance was obtained.
They aren't the first university/private group to put a camera payload up on a balloon to the edge of space. But probably has the least expensive payload. Very initiative use of consumer products.
Here is a google list of near space balloon launches.
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Walt
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Aza
sage
Reged: 04/08/08
Posts: 203
Loc: UK
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Breath taking!
I would love to have taken images like this.
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Arran
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DHB001
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Reged: 07/07/09
Posts: 145
Loc: The Netherlands
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You should definitely check this out. It's footage made from what appears to be a video camera packed in a styrofoam box, attached to a weather balloon, going up, and after the balloon burst at over 107,000 ft, falling back to earth again.
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Regards,
Boy
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