A Lot of Ingenuity and $148

Two MIT students were able to accomplish a near space flight, capture images at 93,000 feet, track it with a GPS, and recover the equipment upon its return to Earth. You would think this would involve very high tech, expensive equipment. It did not. They did it with a weather balloon, cooler, a used digital camera, GPS enabled cell phone, and open source software. A total cost of $148.

I think this is very inspiring for those of us who may not have access to  high end technology and large budgets. These students truly demonstrate that with ingenuity and "can do" attitude a lot is possible in spite of limited budgets.

FYI: The time lapse video is shaky because the cooler that held the camera was not stabilized.

Go to their website to read the details of the Icarus Project and find links to pictures and interviews - http://space.1337arts.com. I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from these MIT students.