Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad of Agincourt, Toronto sent a Lego man into the edge of space using a homemade balloon craft. Their DIY project, which cost around $400 Canadian, was made up of a helium-filled weather balloon along with three point-and-shoot digital cameras, a wide-angle video camera, and a GPS-enabled cellphone, all attached to a custom rig–homespun nylon parachute included.
The pair built their makeshift spacecraft over the span of several free weekends, and launched it one Saturday afternoon, after carefully calculating where their balloon would land upon completing its lofty voyage. The balloon, along with its Lego passenger, was launched from a football field and quickly soared some 80,000 feet before plummeting back to Earth.
The whole return journey took less than two hours, including a 32-minute descent. During its journey, the on-board tech captured over 1,500 pictures and a couple of high-altitude videos. Check out some of the footage below:
Following the duo’s successful experiment Lego’s Michael McNally congratulated the 17-year-olds: “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”.
Lego creations may have been to space before but we think you’ll agree that this do-it-yourself approach to exploring the great-beyond is truly out of this world.
*We know this altitude isn’t technically classed as space, but we think this is a great effort all the same.
[YouTube, Toronto Star via Geekosystem]
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