MIT Students Take Photographs of Earth for Under $150

[Tom Goldman]

MIT Students Take Photographs of Earth for Under $150

Apparently, all it takes is a bit of ingenuity to snap a few photos of the Earth from near-space.

Previous space-photography efforts were totally pwned recently by three MIT students that managed to take photos of Earth from near-space for under $150. Oliver Yeh, Justin Lee, and Eric Newton enacted Project Icarus using an assemblage of common parts and electronics to complete a 93,000 foot launch into the atmosphere to take the photos.

As these students point out on detailed here [http://space.1337arts.com/], consisted of a helium balloon, a prepaid cellphone, and a Canon A470 with 8GB SD card. To insulate against the harsh cold of 17.5 miles up, the group used a styrofoam beer cooler, newspaper, and instant hand warmer. How cool is that? Power everything up with AA batteries and assemble it with duct tape and zip ties, and you're ready to go!

The whole thing reminds me of my favorite childhood movie here [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089114/].

The students are planning to post a free step-by-step guide for how to complete your own $150 launch, with a time-lapse movie, on http://space.1337arts.com [http://space.1337arts.com/] soon, but as posted on the site there is "[homework] due tommorow" that must be finished first. If you like what the group has done, donate, as traffic to their website has been rather high lately.


Via: Slashdot [http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/09/13/1712216/Students-Take-Pictures-From-Space-On-150-Budget]

Permalink

 

[Midniqht]

That's just awesome. I'm at an engineering school myself but I haven't seen anyone try something quite like this here. According to their site, you can actually make it cheaper than they did by replacing a parachute with streamers to create drag, and use a different phone. You supposedly don't even need the antenna they put on there (which was taken from a wireless router). It'd be interesting to see what you could get with a video camera instead of just still shots. Hope the Icarus doesn't land in water...

 

[arcstone]

This really proves how far our technology have come.

I mean, this would be the stuff of science fiction in no longer since than the 1950's.

 

[fletch_talon]

Now to do this and charge people $200 for ariel photogaphs of the town and their houses and stuff.

I'll be rich.

 

[silverbullet1989]

bet they get nice picture of... erm... clouds?

 

[Nincompoop]

To insulate against the harsh cold of 17.5 miles up, the group used a styrofoam beer cooler, newspaper, and instant hand warmer. How cool is that?

Pun?

http://space.1337arts.com [http://space.1337arts.com/]

l33t arts Lol =P.

--

This is the shizz0idz

That's sooo cool of them.

If money wasn't a problem of mine, I'd prolly donate.

 

[Adinoman]

That is so awesome. This whole article had me thinking that MacGuyver was their TA on the project

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

That is amazing.

Completely amazing. I never even knew something like this was possible on that kind of budget. Honestly, NASA should hire these guys after they finish school. I think they've shown a lot of talent.

 

[Treblaine]

Project Icarus.

Do they get extra points for choosing a badass code-name for their end of year project?

 

[Treblaine]

Project Icarus.

Do they get extra points for choosing a badass code-name for their end of year project?

No, because its been used in movies and its named after a terrible failure.

Aww-shucks. Guess they should have called it Project Daedalus then. Either that or Operation Eat-this-NASA.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Amazing.
I wonder how much it would cost for them to launch my mother in law into space.
Gotta make a phone call.

 

[randommaster]

That is amazing.

Completely amazing. I never even knew something like this was possible on that kind of budget. Honestly, NASA should hire these guys after they finish school. I think they've shown a lot of talent.

Well, when the government pays for all of your crap it's easy to overlook cheap stuff in your garage.