Article Entry
22 Sep 2009
Comments:4
D.I.Y. GEOINT: Students Launch Camera to Edge of Space
Added by USGIF Category: Daily Intelligence Brief, General, Young Rising Star
Let’s face it. Most GEOINT technologies are very sophisticated and costly. And, rightly so…they protect our troops and our nation. You can’t put a price tag on that. But, what if we told you that for a mere $148.00, a couple of MIT students launched a camera to the edge of space and took some amazing photos of earth. It is the ultimate tale of D.I.Y. GEOINT. Hey, did we coin a new term here? Is this the next trend in GEOINT? Enterprising and creative people devising ways of launching items into space. You all may recall that for $8,000, you can launch your own personal spy satellite. But, this is taking it to the next level — a grassroots, everyman-on-the-streets approach to GEOINT.
The student, Oliver Yeh and Justin Lee, took the images of the earth’s surface using a camera bought on eBay, a weather balloon, a mobile phone, handwarmers and a drink cooler. As you can imagine there is plenty of press coverage surrounding this story, as the duo claims to be the first people to send a do-it-yourself space camera to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. In the past, capturing these kind of images has been reserved for big-budget agencies like NASA.
Here’s one of the most captivating images:
As you can imagine, a result of this experiment, some are questioning the viability of NASA. Check out this Examiner.com Op-Ed on this topic. Here’s what we think. Very interesting and fun experiment by two very smart MIT students, but a threat to NASA? Come on now. Can a balloon with a digital camera on run experiments on Mars? What do you all think about this?
Tags: DIY GEOINT, GEOINT, GEOINT 2009, geospatial intelligence, Justin Lee, NASA, Oliver Yeh, USGIF
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