British Photographer Builds Space Camera for only $750

Way up in the stratosphere, from a digital camera attached to a balloon.

NASA could learn a lot from Robert Harrison about going to space on a budget.

The British photographer and space enthusiast managed to build his own camera contraption, then sail it into Earth’s upper stratosphere and capture stunning images of our planet, like the one above. The total cost of the project? $750.

Harrison first got the idea for aerial photography when he tried to photograph his house from above by attaching a digital camera to a toy helicopter. Then he went bigger. After researching weather balloons on the internet, Harrison launched his own spacecraft, Icarus I, in 2008.

The craft used a Canon Sure Shot digital camera with a computer chip attached that made it snap a picture every five minutes. This was then wrapped in insulation material and placed in a polystyrene box, which was tied to the balloon. Once the balloon reached its maximum altitude of about 22 miles, it popped, sending the craft back down to Earth on a parachute.A GPS locator then allowed Harrison to easily find it.

Harrison has since sent a dozen cameras into space, and the resulting photographs offer gorgeous images of Earth that we rarely see outside of those taken by governmental space agencies.

NASA has reportedly already contacted Harrison to talk about how he did it so cheaply.