11:32 AM
Aku_Maria
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| Watch the video below, for even more amazing footage! |
The amazing journey into the stars for this tiny lego man began with 2 canadian teenagers from Toronto, and their lego inspired goal to send a lego-naut into space(as they had heard similar projects being done over other continents to capture space images)--Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammad, 17-year-old Agincourt Collegiate Institute students, worked towards this personal goal during the weekeneds over 4 months and a total budget of 400$ to make a homemade parachute attached to a helium filled weather balloon in order provide the brave lego-naut it's ride to the stratosphere. They attached the launching device to a styrofoam box containing 2 videos and 2 still cameras programmed to take photos every 20 seconds and added a gangplank for the lego-naut holding the canadian flag.
When the awaited weather conditions were appropriate for a controlled launch, they went to the main phase of the experient and by using a website that estimates the landing spot of a balloon based on the present weather, launch coordinates and balloon spec, they waited patiently as their project reached a astounding 80,000 feet above the earth in a flight that lasted over a hour and 5 minutes--before the balloon exploded and began the 32 minutes of the lego-nauts descent. The teenagers were able to track the device using a GPS app inside a cellphone, it was recovered from a field 122km away from the launch location. Alltogether the lego-naut brought home 2 videos and 1500 photos.
The resulting video from this amazing journey was promptly uploaded to Youtube, amongst it's impressive 2 million viewers, impressed Michael McNally, brand relations director for Lego, who said, “We are always amazed by the creative ways in which Lego fans use our products, and humbled by how many unsuspecting places we appear, like attached to a helium balloon in . . . space. We’re thrilled to know that Lego products inspire children like Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad to be creative, experiment and see what they can accomplish.”
Interesting words from te lego relations director, as currently several Lego toys are constantly flying even higher above the Earth at this very moment aboard the International Space Station as part of an educational outreach effort by NASA and Lego. And 3 more Lego figurines are speeding to Jupiter aboard NASA’s Juno orbiter.
