$150 edge-of-space camera

Ranger · 18-09-2009

The $150 Edge-of-Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

The full article can be found at the above link, but to sum it all up: 2 MIT students spent what amounted to beer money to take pictures of the Earth's curvature from near space (93,000 ft - 17.5 miles) by building a home-made rig to get a cheap camera up there.

The official website is here: 1337arts

After reading this, I'm probably going to have to try this out.

NutFreeFruitcake · 18-09-2009

EPIC WIN.

Damn MIT students and their clever ideas - why can't I just spontaneously come up with such awesome plans?

Fire2box · 18-09-2009

It's not only EPIC WIN but EPIC LUCK too. The balloon could of popped at any point during the flight for a number of reasons and simply finding the "crash" site is luck. I am glad it worked out for them and I admit its cool but still luck just has to be on their side the whole way for it to go as smoothly as it did.

dakota#15 · 18-09-2009

you work for nasa huh? :P

ballucanb · 18-09-2009

The government thinks you cant do anything unless you spend millions of dollars, a long time ago I think it was the 80's the government was buying hammers you could buy in a hardwear store for 2 bucks and paying 1600.00.

They also were buying toilet seats for 2500.00, now you ask why are we in such debt, these are only 2 examples that they caught, I imagine they bought alot of stuff from someones congressmens brother in law who happen to get the contract.

analog · 18-09-2009

That's a whole other thread about how disgusting our government has become. And the sad part is....people think they can run healthcare better..hows that deficit medi-cade? BILLIONS! ok enough..

That camera is completely awesome! I might try to build one. might and try are operative word but it's awesome.

Fire2box · 20-09-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by ballucanb

The government thinks you cant do anything unless you spend millions of dollars, a long time ago I think it was the 80's the government was buying hammers you could buy in a hardwear store for 2 bucks and paying 1600.00.

They also were buying toilet seats for 2500.00, now you ask why are we in such debt, these are only 2 examples that they caught, I imagine they bought alot of stuff from someones congressmens brother in law who happen to get the contract.

They also spend BILLIONS of dollars of giving money to failing companies and not investigating to why these companies fail or even ask them why they fail.

18-09-2009	#1 (permalink)
Ranger Regular Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Minnesota, USA Age: 22 Posts: 225 Threads: 5 Wiki Edits: 27 Blog Entries: 3 Reputation: 6	$150 edge-of-space camera The $150 Edge-of-Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget \| Gadget Lab \| Wired.com The full article can be found at the above link, but to sum it all up: 2 MIT students spent what amounted to beer money to take pictures of the Earth's curvature from near space (93,000 ft - 17.5 miles) by building a home-made rig to get a cheap camera up there. The official website is here: 1337arts After reading this, I'm probably going to have to try this out.

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18-09-2009	#2 (permalink)
NutFreeFruitcake VIP Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Texas, USA Posts: 159 Threads: 1 Reputation: 15	EPIC WIN. Damn MIT students and their clever ideas - why can't I just spontaneously come up with such awesome plans?

18-09-2009	#3 (permalink)
Fire2box Regular Donor Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Stockton, California Age: 22 Posts: 4,596 Threads: 62 Gallery Uploads: 13 Wiki Edits: 2 Blog Entries: 6 Reputation: 39	It's not only EPIC WIN but EPIC LUCK too. The balloon could of popped at any point during the flight for a number of reasons and simply finding the "crash" site is luck. I am glad it worked out for them and I admit its cool but still luck just has to be on their side the whole way for it to go as smoothly as it did.

18-09-2009	#4 (permalink)
dakota#15 Regular Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: orange county ca Age: 15 Posts: 160 Threads: 11 Gallery Uploads: 2 Reputation: 1	you work for nasa huh? :P

18-09-2009	#5 (permalink)
ballucanb Regular Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: none Posts: 1,729 Threads: 3 Reputation: 18	The government thinks you cant do anything unless you spend millions of dollars, a long time ago I think it was the 80's the government was buying hammers you could buy in a hardwear store for 2 bucks and paying 1600.00. They also were buying toilet seats for 2500.00, now you ask why are we in such debt, these are only 2 examples that they caught, I imagine they bought alot of stuff from someones congressmens brother in law who happen to get the contract.

18-09-2009	#6 (permalink)
analog Regular Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 26 Threads: 2 Blog Entries: 1 Reputation: 2	That's a whole other thread about how disgusting our government has become. And the sad part is....people think they can run healthcare better..hows that deficit medi-cade? BILLIONS! ok enough.. That camera is completely awesome! I might try to build one. might and try are operative word but it's awesome.