Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth (CNN)

[rodsky]

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From CNN:

By John D. Sutter
CNN

(CNN) -- Oliver Yeh is the kind of guy who cooks up ideas so kooky, so out-of-this-world, that even his fellow MIT students tend to roll their eyes when they hear them.

But that never stops him.

His latest concept -- to launch a camera into near-space using a weather balloon, a cell phone, hand warmers and a drink cooler -- fell flat when he sent out an e-mail message to dozens of his classmates, asking for help.

Unfazed, Yeh managed to find one friend willing to chip in. And on September 2, the go-it-alone pair floated a balloon-camera high enough into the atmosphere to photograph the curvature of the Earth and the deep black of space, all on a lunch-money budget of $148.

"For me, it was just about not being afraid to do what I love to do," said Yeh, a 20-year-old MIT senior studying computer science and electrical engineering. "Before, people were just kind of like, 'That's a crazy idea; there he goes all over again.' (Yeh once convinced a friend to float the Charles River with him on a raft made of plastic bottles.)

Here is the picture the camera took:


Read the rest of the article here:
Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth - CNN.com

UPDATE: Forgot to post a link to their website:
http://space.1337arts.com/

-RODION

[ethzneuron]

wana.. naa man kahay ma-inspire ani?!

murag delikado ni sa eroplano dah.. pero okey sad sa ila kay wala gyud lain flying objects ba (or la lang ko kita).

[freez3]

ahahaha. nice.

[cromagnon]

7,500 peso , budget , cellphone. i-unsa kaha pag control to snap and send the pic from the cel phone.

at last , successful na idea. prety cool thoug.

[cromagnon]

i though the whole thing will float in space , sasabog pla yung baloon dahil sa pressure.

kaya they found the thing 20miles away, using gps. good thing walang natama-an.

[lomotel]

Yee copied the idea from the Spanish students

Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon - Telegraph