Into Space on $150

[Inappropriate Behavior]

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009...beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget?npu=1&mbid=yhp

Some MIT students spent $150 and got a weather balloon up into low orbit with a camera duct taped to it and took pictures of the curvature of the Earth. A GPS equipped cell phone helped them locate it when it landed.

So what can you do on a low budget?

 

[Claverhouse]

I dang saw that thing ! T'weren't no 'weather balloon', It came from Rigel A; and it had little folk aboard come to give us great knowledge and peace for all mankind.

Small silver people they were and hungry for what knowings we can tell them.


But, the probes...Oh God, the probes...



Claverhouse

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

Can $1500 bucks get me and my lawn chair into space?

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Can $1500 bucks get me and my lawn chair into space?

Sure, if you're dead.
And you don't mind going up one piece at a time.

 

[Waterstiller]

I'm always looking for excuses to post this video. And yes, it is worth watching and listening. This video is really romantic for me in a weird way.

YouTube- boards of canada - dayvan cowboy

.. it's one of my life's goals to do this one day.

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

I spent 25 bux one time and went to space for a couple hours, then it wore off

 

[walfin]

This is really cool.

Maybe if we could have a large non-burstable helium tank made of some very lightweight material we could send something to the moon?

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

that would be a hell of a way to keep your beer/alcohol cold

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

This is really cool.

Maybe if we could have a large non-burstable helium tank made of some very lightweight material we could send something to the moon?

Ummm, you're never going to get an object to be able to float to the moon. Vacuum is lighter than everything.

 

[Cogwulf]

I'm always looking for excuses to post this video. And yes, it is worth watching and listening. This video is really romantic for me in a weird way.



.. it's one of my life's goals to do this one day.

I think a Frenchman tried it again a year or two ago but his balloon burst before it left the ground

 

[Cogwulf]

Ummm, you're never going to get an object to be able to float to the moon. Vacuum is lighter than everything.

Even if space was filled with air, floating to the moon would still be very difficult because you would run into the problem of there being no up or down at some point

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

It might make a cheap transition to space at least, its too bad there isn't a down balloon for a nice gentle re-entry

 

[Waterstiller]

Even if space was filled with air, floating to the moon would still be very difficult because you would run into the problem of there being no up or down at some point

And that's when you'd launch your rocket from the balloon.

Or if you were me, you'd release the little plastic parachuting army man with a tiny video recording device on it with a note to send the flash card to my address for a reward. Or just find some way to track it with GPS and hunt it down.

 

[Agent Intellect]

Even if space was filled with air, floating to the moon would still be very difficult because you would run into the problem of there being no up or down at some point

I wouldn't be too worried about up or down. I'd be more worried about the fact that we wouldn't even exist, because with that much air, the gravity would have caused the universe to collapse before it even 'banged'.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

I wouldn't be too worried about up or down. I'd be more worried about the fact that we wouldn't even exist, because with that much air, the gravity would have caused the universe to collapse before it even 'banged'.

Well obviously in such a universe gravity would work in reverse.