I stumbled across this article on popsci and I decided to share it with you. I'm not going to go into many of the details, but apparently, MIT's Icarus team managed to launch a balloon, with a camera, into the outer edges of the atmosphere, and they did it with only $150.
This is what they used:
Item
Weight
Cost
Sounding Balloon 350g from Kaymont
350g
~$20 +$20 (helium)
Parachute
~10g
~$3*
Motorola i290 Prepaid Cellphone
~90g, 3oz
~$50**
Styrofoam Beer Cooler
~15g
~$0
Duct Tape
~10g
~$0
Zip Ties
~5g
~$0
Canon A470 with 8GB SD card
~165g, 5.9 oz
~$40***
Insulation material- newspaper
~5g
~$0
Duracell USB phone charger powered by AA batteries
~20g 1oz
~$10
Instant Hand warmer
~5g
~$2****
4 Ultimate Lithium AA batteries
~15g * 4 = 60 g, 2 oz
~$5
Total
~800g, 28oz /w misc.
~$150
I also found out that a Canon A470 camera, with CHDK software took pics every 5 seconds, which permitted the students to capture the entire journey of the balloon, from start to finish. The launch itself took place on Sept 2nd, 2009, from Sturbridge, MA. The balloon reached a max height of 17.5 miles, which is at the uppermost level of the stratosphere. It then popped and returned back to Earth, safely gliding down with it's parachute. This shows what creativity, junk, and a little persistence can accomplish.
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