It's difficult to imagine an article like this about the US. "MIT researchers study solar storms using cheap recycled materials." It doesn't sound right.
Bro, I don't care what this article is trying to sell you. Science is never cheap. It is awesome that these scientist figure out some creative way to cut cost. If everyone is starting to do this on the large scale, the human civilization will stop developing.
History disagrees. Some of the most fundamental discoveries were made using little more than junk laying around the scientist's laboratory.
You don't need a billion dollar budget to do important work. If you think you do, human civilization will stop developing because it's too busy applying for grants.
I'm surprised that given the stingy budgets of many American labs that this isn't more typical.