September 16, 2009
edge of space photos on a budget
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.
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for real?!
awesome.
Yes! I always dreamed of doing this sort of thing. Wouldn’t it be great if somebody figured out how to get things into earth orbit on the cheap like this? Not likely–except that it could be done for way less than the billions typically spent on launch systems.
Sorry–that last one was from me; I didn’t switch the names before sending.
whoa.
Brilliant! The world is a better place for people doing this kind of stuff in my opinion.
beyond cool