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Boost Mobile phone soars 17.5 miles high to edge of space

September 16th, 2009, 8:55 am · 5 Comments · posted by

Motorola i290 phone using Boost Mobile service texts from 17.5 miles in air.UPDATED, 9/17/09: Added comment from one of the students, plus link to the video.

Three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students must be high-fiving one another for successfully sending a $20 helium balloon 18 miles up in the air, taking snazzy photos of the earth, and then using a Boost Mobile phone’s GPS to hunt down the goods after the 40-minute plummet.

For “Project Icarus,” students Oliver Yeh, Justin Lee, Eric Newton used a Motorola i290 phone (sold out on Boost’s site, by the way), which texted them its GPS coordinates using Boost’s prepaid service.

The phone managed to send its location before landing but unfortunately got its antenna buried in the ground, preventing further transmission of its location.

Motorola i290 phone from Boost Mobile used by MIT students to take pictures of space.

Photo from space.1337arts.com

Still, the Canon A470 camera was intact and photos are brag worthy, considering the project’s budget was a mere $150.

“We chose Boost Mobile because the i290 was a widely available cell phone that has both GPS and Web functionality,” Yeh said in an e-mail. His team took all the pictures — one taken every five seconds — and turned it into a video, which was uploaded Wednesday.

Boost Mobile, the Irvine prepaid phone company, is thrilled to be a part of it — even if it was unofficially.

“We think it’s out of this world!  No pun intended, hahaha.  Just kidding!” said Danielle Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the fun-loving wireless company.

“In all seriousness,” Alvarez continued in an e-mail, “This experiment a testament to the quality and dependability of every Motorola handset produced for Boost Mobile. First responders know the importance of the Nextel Nationwide Network for call connectivity and GPS functionality, an added benefit for all Boost Mobile customers.”

The real story behind this is that these students managed to take some beautiful pictures of the earth’s rim on a mere $150 budget. The guys plan to post a how-to video at their Web site, space.1337arts.com. Oh, and they’re taking donations to pay for webhosting services and other expenses. They are students, after all.

Photos taken 17.5 miles above earth.

Related:

Past stories on Boost Mobile:

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 5 Comments

  • Boost Mobile travels into space - Irvine Retail & Real Estate - OCRegister.com says:
    September 16, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    [...] out Tamara’s story here or visit the student’s Web site here. Share this [...]

  • kb says:
    September 17, 2009 at 12:04 am

    haha this is cool! thanks for sharing the story! :) . im surprised the phone worked under such cold conditions.

  • brianguy says:
    September 17, 2009 at 12:12 am

    “We think it’s out of this world! No pun intended, hahaha. Just kidding!”

    Did this chick even graduate the 8th grade? Really, that’s some spokeperson.

    It’s a cool feat, but her ability to communicate the company’s position is just embarrassing.

  • jim s says:
    September 17, 2009 at 2:04 am

    The flight of helium balloon electronics like this is very old news, but well written press releases must get noticed. This is all over the media for some reason as “news”.

  • Will D says:
    September 17, 2009 at 10:48 am

    I think this is all over the place because they say they did it for 150 bucks with off the shelf components. None of the writeups on this I’ve seen have questioned that 150 dollar figure. I don’t think it’s possible.
    Phone: $50 plus tax plus plan = $60
    Camera: $60 (mean price between the one they used, which sells for more used, and some of the cheaper canons. you need a canon to hack into easily using some free software and take photos every 5 secs like they did)
    Parachute: they never say anything about it. did they make it? let’s assume it was from a model rocket set. $10
    350 gram balloon: $35
    65 cubic feet of helium: $20 (if you get the balloon or your tank filled up at the store. but who has a tank? who fills up the balloon and travels a significant distance to the launch site? oh well)
    battery powered phone charger to keep phone going: $10
    batteries: $6
    external cell phone antenna: $12
    various hardware and hookups around balloon, nylon, cooler for payload, duck tape, twisty ties, coleman handwarmers to prevent freezing: $20
    =$233
    I think you’d be hard-pressed to replicate this for less, unless of course you already had some of the stuff around the house. Not that $233 is extravagantly more money, but I think the reason this little story blew up was because of that $150 number. Coverage and interest would have an inverse relationship to cost, even if the number was $200 or so.

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