In the CNN news article was about the two students from MIT who have gathered from publicly accessible machine, run it and got pictures from space. And the budget was $ 148.
Let's look at what did the money :
- weather balloon ($ 20, filling with helium is $ 20)
- Cell phone with built-in gps ($ 50)
- camera ($ 40)
The creators hoped to reach a height of over 32 km. To combat the cold (rated temperature - minus 52 º C) used foam cooler for beer and heaters for the hands.
According to the results start on September 2 unit reached its peak at an altitude of 29 km, after which the probe began to decrease. The camera takes pictures every 5 seconds, and the total time was about 5 hours.
The real value of this launch is not high. Similar launches were carried out more than once, just before they did not have such wide publicity. In the discussion on slashgeo mentions several similar projects, for example, the apparatus Alexei Karpenko . On the other hand, this time is reached, perhaps, the least possible budgets.
CNN's knowledge in the field of satellite technology (and celestial mechanics) leads me to the awe
"Geostationary satellites operate in orbits in the 38-40 km"
All my life, geostationary orbit located at an altitude of 40 thousand (40000) km with a slight tail ... Do they have learned in the atmosphere to run? "
It's my mistake. Removed.