Cambodia, home to some of SE Asia’s poorest people, a history of warfare and mass graves, and undiscovered minefields, can now lay claim to one of the cheapest space projects of all time. The space-borne payload, named Preah Atet (“The Sun”) by a local high school student, was a 20×30 cm Styrofoam box containing a digital camera that flew for 2.5 hours underneath a helium balloon before parachuting back to earth. Click on the image to see the 5-minute (edited) video of Preah Atet’s journey. Read more about Preah Atet here (Science, 15 Oct 2010, 330, 301, Random Samples, “From Cambodia, With Helium”)
