Plenty Cheepness

**thunderlizard** · 21 September 2009, 19:45

Better late then never

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/c...re/5357966.stm

**vetran** · 21 September 2009, 21:15

at last

a pleasant story in the news.

Impressive both stories

**Tarquin Farquhar** · 22 September 2009, 08:42

Originally posted by thunderlizard View Post

Better late then never

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/c...re/5357966.stm

Standard American BS: do it 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) and then report it as if America were 1st. Eventually people will believe it, see Wright Brothers.

**TimberWolf** · 22 September 2009, 08:57

The article doesn't make clear what height they achieved, but the 18 miles up given for the photo is hardly the "edge of space".

**BrilloPad** · 22 September 2009, 09:30

Originally posted by HairyArsedBloke View Post

This is a great story: The $150 Edge-of-Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget

I would have just spent it on beer.

**TimberWolf** · 22 September 2009, 18:31

Originally posted by zeitghost

Not bad for $150 though.

Yeah, plenty cheapness.

I'd be interested to know how cheap it could potentially be to reach that height, excluding the cost of the electronic stuff. To get, say 200g (0.2Kg) to 30km ballistically would take a minimum of 0.2 Kg * 9. 8 m/s^2 * 30,000 m = 59 kJ. Or about 2 cc of petrol. How much energy would it take to create the required amount of helium to float up.

Plenty Cheepness