It’s in that spirit that I was very happy to learn about the efforts of two enterprising MIT students who, in what they appropriately called Project Icarus, were able to take high-altitude pictures from the “edge of space” with a setup that included a weather balloon filled with helium, a cheap digital camera (Canon A470), a pre-paid phone with GPS (Motorola i290), an antenna (to extend the range of the phone, some basic tracking/geography software like Google Earth and Accutracking, and a styrofoam beer cooler to insulate the setup such that, collectively, cost them only a mere $148!

The results? Over a 5 hour period, the setup went 17.5 miles up (to the “edge of space”), where the balloon popped, and fell to the earth over a 40 minute period and landed about 20 miles away from the launch site. And, as for the pictures, well, you can see them yourself in the students’ MIT directory or in the timelapse video they put together (below).

If that doesn’t inspire you to do a little exploration of your own, I don’t know what will!

Not to be outdone, British students launched teddy bears into near-space using a similar technique, but included temperature sensors (to measure the temperature extremes), insulating “spacesuits” (to protect the bears from freezing solid), and even a parachute to gently glide the bears down to Earth!

(Note: if you’re in the US and want to do something similar, please make sure to (a) contact the FAA, (b) use the University of Wyoming’s balloon trajectory estimator to make sure that your balloon won’t land in a densely populated region, and (c) make sure the balloon can land gently without injuring anyone or your equipment)

(Photo’s from 1337arts site) (Teddy Bear photo’s from DailyMail)