Balloon and Duct Tape Deliver Great Space Photos

krou writes "With a budget of £500, Robert Harrison used cheap parts, a weather balloon, some duct tape, a digital camera, and a GPS device to capture some great photos of the earth from space that resulted in NASA calling him to find out how he had done it. 'A guy phoned up who worked for NASA who was interested in how we took the pictures,' said Mr Harrison. 'He wanted to know how the hell we did it. He thought we used a rocket. They said it would have cost them millions of dollars.' The details of his balloon are as follows: he used 'an ordinary Canon camera mounted on a weather balloon,' 'free software' that 'reprogrammed the camera to wake up every five minutes and take eight photographs and a video before switching off for a rest.' He also ensured the camera was 'wrapped in loft insulation' to make sure it could operate at the cold temperatures. The GPS device allowed him to pinpoint the balloon's location, and retrieve the camera when it fell down to earth attached to a small parachute."

Comments

Re:All the NASA scientists couldn't think of that?

[jeffmeden]

Why are you surprised? NASA spent millions to develop a pen that could write in space... the Russians used a pencil. Sometimes people look for a really complicated solution instead of going for something cheap and cheerful that gets-the-job-done.

LOL!

I mean, no. No they didn't. This is an urban legend perpetuated by petty anti-government types. Educate thy self: http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

Re:All the NASA scientists couldn't think of that?

[YrWrstNtmr]

NASA spent millions to develop a pen that could write in space... the Russians used a pencil.

Someday, people will stop repeating this falsehood.
I fear that day is not coming anytime soon, though.

Re:All the NASA scientists couldn't think of that?

[daremonai]

Urban legend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Pen