Do you have to recover it to get the pictures, or can they be viewed while in flight? It would be a cool little community project to fund and launch one of these things for everyone to track and view the pics. 
You could probably even raise even funds to add some other cool gadgets to the payload.
You could probably even raise even funds to add some other cool gadgets to the payload.Yes you have to recover it, as the radio module works at 50 baud rate (50 words per minute) and it would take very long to send a picture (Though using special modules you could send tiny images). 3G internet would not work above 1000m. It would be awesome to launch this year, everyone could track it because when the data is received the computer uploads it to http://spacenear.us which shows current location, altitude and info about sensors (Temperature...)
Bitcoin could go to the stratosphere before reaching the moon ;P
EDIT: Radio data is received in a 500km range.
Could the radio be upgraded with enough funds, or is there a better method that could be used? It would be cool to see enough BTC raised to put up something awesome and have it stay up for a long time sending back pictures.
I will do some research for better ways of sending pictures, but the only one I've seen is with a 300baud module. The problem is that someone has to be in range to receive pictures. There are two types of balloons, this that go up and down quickly (mine took about 90 mins to go up 31km and down) or floaters that can be for days floating and travel thousands of Km, but as said if nobody with a radio at range signal would be lost.
The beauty of getting the community involved is that there are folks all over. I say you make a super ballon that will stay up longer and go farther than any other balloon of this type with a radio that is capable of sending back pictures (maybe a satellite link?). We as a community could make sure that nearby folks are helping to receive the signal and recover the unit if necessary. I think this is a cool idea and I'd throw a few bitcents at it and follow the project. I think you could easily raise enough BTC to build whatever you wanted with a solid plan. I also think if the plan went successfully, a lot of donations would be made, and probably several other units could be launched in countries all over the world. This could turn into something huge if done right and expose balloon hobbyists to Bitcoin. Perhaps even a website could be developed to fund and track awesome projects like this.
If (safely) launched with a couple lit flares, you could even get a massive amount of media attention: http://ktar.com/6/814826/Man-claims-responsibility-for-Phoenix-mystery-lights
Thanks OgNasty for the support, I will prepare a Solid plan with all the steps to accomplish this and talk to a few people I know who are in the hobby, I'm sure they will be interested.
You just gave me the "energy" necessary to start this
TO THE MOON!
And beyond!
