MIT kids take pictures of the Earth from near space for only $150.

Started by alanp, November 03, 2009, 03:23:33 PM

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alanp

November 03, 2009, 03:23:33 PM Last Edit: November 03, 2009, 03:31:23 PM by AlanP
So these kids wanted to get pictures from as high up as possible sent a camera up on a ballon and managed to get pictures from near space from 9300 feet!  High enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth and the darkness of space in the daytime.

They took a cannon digital camera they bought on ebay, a cellphone GPS tracker, a styrofoam ice chest and sent their contraption up in a helium ballon.   The camera was loaded with open source firmware to take a picture every 5 seconds.  It rose to 9300 feet over a period of 4 hours and made a 45 minute decent.  They recovered their camera and found amazing pictures.  Their website provides the instructions to recreate their project and all the pictures they took.


http://space.1337arts.com/

Serenity

#2
November 03, 2009, 04:09:21 PM
Wow,,thats pretty cool! 

moyer777

#3
November 03, 2009, 04:12:52 PM
so amazing.  I would love to do that!

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Bromptonboy

#5
November 03, 2009, 05:22:11 PM
Quote from: AlanP on November 03, 2009, 03:23:33 PM
So these kids wanted to get pictures from as high up as possible sent a camera up on a ballon and managed to get pictures from near space from 9300 feet!  High enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth and the darkness of space in the daytime.

They took a cannon digital camera they bought on ebay, a cellphone GPS tracker, a styrofoam ice chest and sent their contraption up in a helium ballon.   The camera was loaded with open source firmware to take a picture every 5 seconds.  It rose to 9300 feet over a period of 4 hours and made a 45 minute decent.  They recovered their camera and found amazing pictures.  Their website provides the instructions to recreate their project and all the pictures they took.


http://space.1337arts.com/
WOw that is cool (but it was 93,000').  Hard to believe they could recover this after it reached that dizzying height.  At that altitude, I would imagine it would drift some distance.  (tempts me to try it out for that price!)
Pete

Feathers

#6
November 04, 2009, 06:17:43 AM
It only travelled 20 miles? I'd have thought that if you tried it in the UK and it would almost certainly come down in a sea somewhere but with only a 20 mile distance, that wouldn't be a problem.

Don't try this on a windy day!

I know it's unnusual here but I don't have a podcast of my own.

Bromptonboy

#7
November 04, 2009, 07:13:02 AM
Quote from: Feathers on November 04, 2009, 06:17:43 AM
It only travelled 20 miles? I'd have thought that if you tried it in the UK and it would almost certainly come down in a sea somewhere but with only a 20 mile distance, that wouldn't be a problem.

Don't try this on a windy day!
Right - at those heights, they might run into Sir Richard's balloon somewhere in the jetstream....  I am amazed it didn't travel much further.
Pete
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