Canadian Kids Send Lego Man to Edge of Space

[SamuelKhan]

Top that NASA...DIY teens in Toronto just went and did it.

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Two Canadian teenagers have sent a Lego man into the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere using a home-stitched parachute and equipment found on Craigslist.

Two weeks ago, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, both 17, attached the plastic figurine replete with maple leaf flag to a helium balloon, which they sent 80,000 feet into the air.

The pair managed to capture the entire journey into the blackness of space, including the descent, which lasted 97 minutes, using four cameras, at an entire cost of just £254.

Spending four months of Saturdays on the project, the teenagers launched the professionally made weather balloon from a football pitch. It then soared to more than double the height of a commercial jet's cruising altitude – some 24km into the upper atmosphere from where the Earth's curvature can be seen.

Having attached a GPS receiver to the styrofoam box carrying the cameras and Lego-naut, the two managed to recover the bundle attached to a hand-stitched parachute from a field 122km from the launch site.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/26/canadian-teenagers-lego-man-space?newsfeed=true

 

[Bothersome]

That... is so cool.

 

[LD_Tickler]

Hahaha YES

 

[GEORGIATKLER]

This was really a job for Matt Mason, not Lego man. But it beats the hell outta my volcano with lava science project. Their execution, tracking and recovery were all well planned.

 

[paracarl44]

I Saw this on ABC's Good Morning America. Those kids should get an A+ in Science.

 

[Bothersome]

I Saw this on ABC's Good Morning America. Those kids should get an A+ in Science.

Pfft. Those kids should get scholarships.

 

[Gothika]

awesome they should have sent it with a beer an hockey stick tho 😛

 

[Bugman]

awesome they should have sent it with a beer an hockey stick tho 😛

Your a hockey stick. 😛 Seriously though, that is pretty cool. 😀