One Lego man is so famous for his real life space mission that the toy has been given his own Facebook page and the Canadian teens who sent him there were congratulated by the Danish company.
The Toronto Star reported that an MIT YouTube video illustrating a balloon going up, up and away into near space caused Matthew Ho, and later, Asad Muhammed, to be very interested in trying a similar feat. But this time, the balloon would carry a very important "person" in the form of a Lego man proudly holding up the Canadian flag as he drifted off into the upper atmosphere.
And, after intently driving toward their goal for more than four months while juggling high school studies at Agincourt Collegiate Institute and while devoting most Saturdays to their ambitious project, the little guy did go on his mission. He hit 80,000 feet after a little over an hour's time while recording the curvature of the earth before the hand-crafted balloon popped and fell in a matter of about 30 minutes.
But that was the end of a laborious chore for these potentially future aerospace engineers, or possibly even astronauts in their own right.
In the video interview with the Star, Ho and Muhammed came up with a little box that would carry a total of four simple cameras. Made of Stryofoam, the container was also equipped with mitten warmers to keep the equipment at working temperature once the project reached its ambitious altitude.
A weather ballon was purchased from a party store for the necessary helium and the parachute was made from scratch even though these two guys admitted they had no experience with a sewing machine. Although the latter item could have been purchased online, according to the teen scientists, the two nixed that idea because they wanted to figure out every aspect of the building process and claim that as their own.
In its entirety, including the purchase of the precious Lego man, the project cost Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammed a total of around $400, a pittance considering how much it costs to get anything into space these days.
And then, when the contraption that would be launched was ready, the inventors had to wait for clearance. That is, clearance for the right weather conditions in order to make sure that their Lego space man didn't end up in the U.S. since these guys weren't taking any chances with America's Homeland Security. But finally, the mission was accomplished.
Meanwhile, the video made by the vessel of that mission that the 17-year-old Canadian kids posted on YouTube showing the Lego man's space shot has received 1,681,891 hits as of this writing. Not only is this fascinating proof that the two intrepid high school students did achieve their goal,-but that these teens also are serving to inspire others to reach for the stars--and we mean that quite literally.
Image: Facebook
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