Australian Student Balloon Rises 100,000 Feet, With a Digital Camera

hype7 writes "An Australian student at Deakin University had a fascinating idea for a final project — to send a balloon up 100,000ft (~30,000 metres) into the stratosphere with a digital camera attached. The university was supportive, and the project took shape. Although there were some serious hitches along the way, the project was successful, and he managed to retrieve the balloon — with the pictures. What's really amazing is that the total cost was so low; the most expensive part was buying the helium gas for approximately AUD$250 (~USD$200)."

Comments

So what...

[krej]

Didn't some kids at MIT send a balloon out of the atmosphere for less than $150 USD recently? What's so special about this?

Re:Altitude

[imakemusic]

I don't see why that's a big deal. Neil Armstrong went to the MOON in and made it back in one piece with cameras rolling. OK, they weren't digital cameras and the whole job cost a lot more than $200 but it was back in the 60s...