Million Dollar NASA Photos Beaten by Budget Balloon

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Hylian

Hylian

http://gnews.com/science/Million-Dollar-NASA-Photos-Beaten-by-Budget-Balloon-632572225751.html




It’s amazing what a little British ingenuity and a shoe-string budget can achieve. These glorious photos of space were taken by amateur enthusiast Robert Harrison, using a cheap Canon digital camera, some duct tape and a helium balloon.



In total, the rudimentary space camera cost just £500 ($747) on a project which a NASA spokesman admitted would have cost them millions of dollars.

Speaking to The Times, Mr Harrison explained: “A guy phoned up who worked for NASA who was interested in how we took the pictures. He wanted to know how the hell we did it.” The space experts thought Mr Harrison must have used a homemade rocket to take such spectacular shots from over 20 miles above the Earth’s surface.





The device uses materials readily available online, including loft insulation to wrap both the camera and a GPS tracking device to protect the digital equipment from freezing temperatures of -60°C (-75°F). The helium balloon which lifted the camera high above the Earth’s atmosphere expands to a diameter of up to 20 metres, before popping and letting the camera fall back to Earth via an attached parachute.





Mr Harrison said that he was by no means an electronics expert, and had picked up all he needed to know from browsing the internet, including how to reprogram his digital camera to sleep and reactivate every five minutes to take eight photos.





We have republished just some of the amazing photos taken here, but you can see the full collection at Mr Harrison’s dedicated website – The Icarus Project.
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Chibibar

That is pretty amazing. While the balloon is pretty awesome in taking pictures, the million dollar equipment can actually navigate to different part and get different angles and even go further out to space and take more picture.

But still... it is an amazing feat.
 
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Dusty668

Chibibar said:
That is pretty amazing. While the balloon is pretty awesome in taking pictures, the million dollar equipment can actually navigate to different part and get different angles and even go further out to space and take more picture.

But still... it is an amazing feat.
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Plus he didn't have to allocate an administrative budget to handle the budget andministration, launch clearances and permits. Those shots are SUPER.
 
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Chazwozel

THEY'RE LIARS! ALL OF THEM! LOOK HOW FLAT THE EARTH IS! LOOK AT IT! FLAT EARTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
HoboNinja

HoboNinja

This is the 3rd or 4th team I have seen that has done this and I want to so do it so bad! But I am broke, it is actually really cheap to do only about $200 in supplies to do it. Styrofoam cooler, cheap camera with custom firmware, helium balloon, GPS tracker...

Ah seems this one was a bit more pricey but still it can be done really inexpensively.
 
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