Take your own space photos for around $150

[roadwreck]

A pair of MIT students took their own photos from "outer space" (I thought I remember outer space being defined as 67.5 miles above the earth) for around $150.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the...r-money-budget/

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Uber cool!

I thought outer space was outside our solar system...

 

[roadwreck]

I thought outer space was outside our solar system...

Hmmm, I really don't know. I thought I remembered the distance of "space" that was used for that space competition (can't remember the name of it, the one where Richard Branson was involved and there was some sort of competition to make a space craft) was 62.5 miles. According to wikipedia the boundry seems to vary, but the all boundries are greater than 18 miles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space#Boundary

 

[z06dustin]

yah a balloon by definition can't breach the atmosphere (space).

but kudos to them.... amazing job. they'll make good engineers.

 

[Supe]

Project: "Launch Weather Balloon Into Girls' Locker Room" shall commence immediately as part of the new Dleg administration.

 

[MA_PE]

FWIW I read an article about this yesterday. The students recognize that thier balloon could not / did not reach "space" much less "outer space". They refer to their photos as from "near space". It is the typical yellow journalism that is embelishing.

I recall that they determined the balloon reached an altitude of apprimately 93,000 ft (17.6 miles).

They intend on offering all the details of what they did online for a fee of about $150, so actual cost to others that may want to repeat their experiment would be ~$300. ($!50 for the directions and $150 for the materials).

Pretty neat stuff.

 

[jeb6294]

They've just updated the article...the instructions are free not $150 as reported. It sounds like they are going to try and post a video of the time-lapse photos taken by the camera on the way up (they set the camera to take a picture every 5 seconds).

 

[Dleg]

I don't care where you define "space" to start; what those students did is way cool.

Thanks for posting.