Space On a Shoestring

An anonymous reader writes, "Three engineering students from Cambridge University plan to send an unmanned craft into space for £1,000 ($1,880) and have just sent a test mission up 32 km for a lot less. Their snaps from the upper atmosphere are impressive, and were taken by a balloon equipped with off-the-shelf technology including GSM text messaging, radio communications, and an ordinary 5-megapixel camera. They now plan to use a similar craft as a launching stage to get a cheap rocket into space." There's also a video of the balloon launch.

Comments

Big balls of Gas

[talk2sk]

Firstly congratulations.

Secondly, lets not get carried away (pun intended). This is a helium balloon carrying a box with gadgets, simple and cheap yes, but heck! thats what weather balloons do.

I think it is over glorifying a simple task. What would be amazing is if they made a craft that was capable of transporting payloads or something that could be controlled (path/stability etc). Otherwise this is just a big ball of gas

Since when does insurance bring people to life

[cheekyboy]

Tell me one insurance company that can bring people back from the dead, and talking to them doesn't count. Not
that they would say anything usefull, as all ghosts are NOT helpfull and will never reveal the truth/life/everything
about the afterlife, or what they do, if they sleep or not, or if they time travel or if they have a govt of sorts
or leaders that say "you cannot reveal much to living souls"

If a darn ghost was that usefull, Einstein would have told someone the answers too all. Unless they
dont know any more than when they died. But if the soul gets reborn into another human, then
contacting your dead relative might be fruitless as they cannot 'return the call' if they are 3 years old
in a baby somewhere in India, unless they are timeless but then that gets too wierd to imagine.