Teenager captures out-of-this-world space photos with £30 eBay camera

Teenager floats £30 camera into space to capture curvature of Earth

www.telegraph.co.uk...





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A teenager has floated a £30 camera he bought on eBay into space to capture amazing images of the Earth.

Adam Cudworth, 19, managed to capture these incredible views of the earth from space using little more than a balloon and his second-hand camera.

And while NASA spends hundreds of millions of pounds each year on high tech satellites Adam, whose scientific background consists of only a Physics A-Level, achieved his incredible feat - on a £200 budget.

The student spent 40 hours working on a home-made device consisting of a box containing a GPS, radio and microprocessor - which soared to an incredible height of 110,210 ft (33,592m) when he released it last Thursday.

After taking two-and-a-half hours to float over 20 miles up into the earth's stratosphere, his contraption captured out-of-this-world images giving breathtaking views of our planet from space.

Adam used a GPS tracker similar to a car's sat-nav to follow its progress and an attached radio transmitter to find it when it fell back to earth having reached speeds of over 150mph.

The teenager, from Ombersley, Worcs., said: "It's just a bit of hobby really, I just wanted to set myself a challenge - but I'm amazed at the results.

"I have no background in astrophysics or anything like that, I'm just an engineering student.

"People think its something that costs millions of pounds but I've proved you can do it on just a £200 budget."

Here is what you can buy for £200 to make your own satellite!

Adam bought a standard Canon A570 camera off eBay a year-and-a-half ago when he first had the idea for the project.

He placed it in an insulated box along with a small video camera, two temperature sensors, two high-performance solar panels, a tracking device, microprocessor and radio.

The Nottingham University student then attached it to a high-altitude two metre latex balloon with a parachute - and named his contraption HABE 5.

The built-in circuit board allowed for Adam to cleverly record the speed, G-force and altitude his balloon was reaching at all times.

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This is amazing.

I did see something similar on Kickstarter.

I would love to make something like this and try my self, I guess it would be a hassle to find it once it reaches earth again.

Good on him.......bright young kid................brill

So if NASA is dropping millions of dollars on their satellites, who is to say it cannot be done for much cheaper?

You would have to send this kid an email requesting how he built the circuit and the design layout for the project.

I would love to build one of these myself...pretty cool indeed

reply to post by Skywatcher2011


This is very cool! Great for him!! Intelligence comes in all ages
Skywatchers I agree, he even states he proves he can do it cheaper! This no doubt makes me want to try this little experiment as well!

"I have no background in astrophysics or anything like that, I'm just an engineering student.

"People think its something that costs millions of pounds but I've proved you can do it on just a £200 budget."
^^quote^^
Thanks for sharing SkyWatcher!! This is very impressive!

lies, how much did his GPS cost? and the other materials?

reply to post by WanderingThe3rd

That's a bold statement. I sense a lawsuit on it's way

Originally posted by WanderingThe3rd
lies, how much did his GPS cost? and the other materials?

I have a GPS car navigator that only cost me $80 new (about £50).

He said the total cost for this balloon trip was £200. If he spent £30 on a camera, and (say) even £70 on the GPS, that would leave him with £100 ($160) for the balloon, parachute, heat sensors, and foam box.

That sounds do-able, especially if he could have found a cheaper used GPS.

If that had floated over Israel a war may have been declared.

Headlines read

"Iran spying from space"

Very cool, i like stories that promote the idea that scientific study can be accomplished by anyone with practically any kind of means.

Whether that is sending a camera into space on a ballon to looking at an ant with a magnifying glass.

Really cool, and nice to see a young man with a brain for a change. However, comparing it to what NASA does, is a bit silly.

Thats really neat, is there a way to keep it afloat in the atmosphere?

i guess i would need thrusters to bypass certain atmosphere... damn.

It would need to enter an orbit fast enough to counter gravity. That takes lots of energy. Way more than you can fit in that foam box of his.

en.wikipedia.org...

"Because of the atmosphere it is not useful and hardly possible to give an object near the surface of the Earth a speed of 11.2 km/s (40,320 km/h), as these speeds are too far in the hypersonic regime for most practical propulsion systems and would cause most objects to burn up due to atmospheric friction or be torn apart by atmospheric compression. For an actual escape orbit a spacecraft is first placed in low Earth orbit (160–2,000 km) and then accelerated to the escape velocity at that altitude, which is a little less — about 10.9 km/s. The required change in speed, however, is far less because from a low Earth orbit the spacecraft already has a speed of approximately 8 km/s."

reply to post by AnonUK

I guess it would be a hassle to find it once it reaches earth again.

Location beacon and another GPS?

Seems he was able to find it ok.

Could this have caused a problem for planes in the sky?

There have been a few successful attempts to do this by several different people within the last few years that I recall. I wonder how long before a permit is required or if these type of attempts are made illegal?

Little things like this is what makes me believe space exploration will be by private companies. They, like this young man, will be trying to do it cheaper, better and faster. Governments pay billions for "expert" advice, when some times, all they need is some common sense.

I encourage you all to look on YT, thera are tons of vids, pics like this mad through last few years. Meteo baloon, cheap camera with gps and you make your own space exploration - cheap and cool.

Originally posted by DAVID64
Little things like this is what makes me believe space exploration will be by private companies. They, like this young man, will be trying to do it cheaper, better and faster. Governments pay billions for "expert" advice, when some times, all they need is some common sense.

Easy comment to make, but the images were good BUT not great and he has NO CONTROL once launched so people comparing this with NASA seriously need to think again!

This is cool but I doubt he could design technology for NASA designed to get into outer space at a cheaper price. I mean its nice he sent this little balloon box thing into outer space but we're talking about satellites...I don't think he could even begin to talk about building a cheaper one until he has the credentials needed to understand how to build one.

The kid should sell pagages with instructions say double or triple what he has into it. I bet he would sell a ton. I've taken video cameras and lofted them under balloons a few hundred feet

I think the idea is great so dont get me wrong but....
This needs to be controlled to some extent. There are laws governing on what you can launch and from where, to protect international airspace. Solid fuel model rockets are bound by limitations and rules to protect the public. I'm sure that an eager teenager would not want to bring down a jumbo jet by accident. Please everybody think before you sent it skywards. As a registered shooter, I must always be conscience of what I might hit, if I miss. Be Safe.