Launch a Camera to near outspace for $150
 

2 MIT students launched a cheap Canon A470 into the upper stratosphere to get a picture of the curvature of the earth. They did it for $150!

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

Hmm, I like that!

They would have been in deep shit if the balloon dropped into the ocean.

Very cool.

It's oging to be illegal

yes, i am surprised they are not in trouble for this..

you are supposed to get a permit or file with the faa or some shit...

what if a plane had crashed as a result of this...

on the other hand.. now i want to build one of these too...

Some high school students did this before, a few months ago.

looks kewl

Like fines for littering? Or deep shit cuz their equipment would have been damaged?

Haha I was thinking the same thing

$149 for a camera, a cellphone with GPS, and all other material?

The camera Canon A470 seems to go for about $75, I wonder what GPS phone they used...

Very cool. I wonder how hard the falling beer cooler hit and what damage it would've caused had it hit a house or a person or such. Would make for a good story though! LOL

my luck it would fall out of the sky and kill someone

and now its illegal probably lol some idiot will launch thier pet into space or something stupid like that

It couldn't have been a free fall. It would have been way too hot withstand that.

A styrofoam beer cooler weighs as close to nothing as something can, attached you had the phone of course which could cause a small ouch.
The damage it would cause a person would be fairly minor and to a house it would be none unless by some freak chance it landed on a skylight. At most you may lightly dent something.
The cooler and camera would of reached terminal velocity and once that was hit, the rest of the height no longer matters. Example being it would make no difference if a human fell 1900 ft, or 40,000 ft. they would impact at the same speed.

From that page:

"Looks like great high school project for kids."

Great, just what we need, thousands of public school kids launching things into the sky only to come down on the rest of us. LOL ;)

From their site. **Many people have commented on the legality of the balloon launch with respect to FAA regulations. FAA regulations only apply to balloons with payloads over four pounds. Please check the FAA regulations for further information.

Cool, reminds me of the days when I used to fly Estes rockets.

That's awesome!