Space Photography On A Budget

How To Take Photos From the Edge of Space For $150

MIT students build a high-altitude, photo-snapping balloon using off-the-shelf components

An enterprising group of MIT students set out on a mission to photograph the uppermost parts of the stratosphere more than 17 miles above earth - on a budget of $150.

Launch Day

Launch day took place on September 2, 2009 from Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The ultra low-budget balloon went 17.5 miles high into the uppermost parts of the stratosphere (about 93,000 feet) and returned 5 hours later. The MIT students tracked the device with GPS and found it about 20 miles away from the launch site.

Hardware List

The MIT students designed a low cost balloon-launch platform that did not require the use of expensive equipment such as radio modems or complicated hardware hacking. All of the components of the device were common electronics available off-the-shelf in stores.

The GPS receiver was a Motorola i290 “Boost Mobile” prepaid phone with internet and GPS capability (set up with Accutracking to constantly report its GPS location), and loaded a Canon A470 camera (bought used on Amazon) with CHDK open source software to enable a feature which allowed the camera to take pictures continuously (intervalometer). Using this feature, they set the camera to take a picture every 5 seconds at a 1/800 second shutter speed.

Project Icarus