One of life’s great ironies is that simple solutions to problems are often determined by brilliant people. Such was the case when two MIT kids came up with an idea for a cheap, and we mean really cheap, way to take pictures of the upper stratosphere and space. A digital camera, a beer cooler, and a weather balloon were about the only major things necessary to complete the contraption!

The guys claim to have a total of $150.00 wrapped up in the project, making it something that we honestly want to try with our own kiddos when they get old enough to figure out what space actually is. So how did they do it?  

Using a helium filled weather balloon to provide the lift, a styrofoam cooler with pocket warmer packets as heating devices to keep the camera warm enough so the batteries wouldn’t freeze, a prepaid cell phone with GPS to track the thing, and a bunch of duct tape to seal the whole deal up.

The whole exercise is pointless if one cannot get the camera back and see the photos, so some planning went into deciding on a launch site and figuring in winds. The guys factored for the wind and drove to the central part of Massachusetts from Boston to compensate for winds that would have carrier the balloon out over the Atlantic Ocean.

The thing got 93,000 feet into the sky, shot a bunch of awesome photos and the whole flight lasted about 5 hours. According to the story we read, it was so high up, it took 40 minutes to free fall back to terra firma. 

Hit the link below for the whole story. This is 100% BangShift approved coolness and a science project that could really be a gas to complete with the kids (or by yourself, especially if you were model rocket geeks like us).

Thanks to Bobby Jepson for the tip! 

Source — Wired.com — $150 Space Camera

This photo was taken by the $150 space camera!