Lego man in space.....there's hope for us after all

Pretty damn awesome. This wasn't a school project or anything. Two 17 year old guys just put this balloon together over a four month period on Saturday mornings. Then launched it. Balloon went as high as 24 kilometres (14 miles) and took some great photos

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1120808--toronto-teens-send-lego-man-on-a-balloon-odyssey-24-kilometres-high?bn=1


Starting this past September, the duo spent their Saturdays at Ho’s kitchen table in Scarborough, drawing up plans and building the balloon.

“People would walk into the house and see us building this fantastical thing with a parachute from scratch, and they would be like, ‘What are you doing?” says Ho. “We’d be like, ‘We’re sending cameras to space.’ They’d be like, ‘Oh, okayyyyy….’”

 

Cool story and the video is pretty sweet. I thought this was a cool idea when I saw it in some commercial (maybe for Canon?), but it's even cooler that a couple of teenagers did it.

Doesn't seem terribly difficult, except for the all-important recovery phase. Attaching the cell phone with the GPS app was a good idea.

 

I've been seeing stories like this for a couple of years now. It seems like it's becoming more and more popular.

And it's awesome every single time. I can't wait till my son is old enough to do this with me.

 

There's just something awesome about having your own video, one YOU created, of outer space.

 

I love that there's a website that predicts where balloons will fall.

The Internet rocks.

And so do these kids.

 

This was pretty funny, predicting where the balloon would fall:

The site kept spitting out Rochester, N.Y., as their balloon’s final landing spot. Muhammad and Ho didn’t like their chances with U.S. Homeland Security.

 

That made me laugh. One of those kids needs to hook up with that teenage girl who cured cancer and start making genius babies and inventing teleporters or something.

 

Canuckistan exceptionalism, I salute you!

 

I'd love to do this myself, but the cameras would land somewhere out in the Atlantic.

 

Good on those 2 kids. That was great.

Budget for the Canadian Space Program - $400

 

Follow up from today's Star.

Those pictures are absolutely stunning considering they didn't go to any great expense for their cameras. I can't take a decent picture of my kid with his cousins at Christmas and these guys get these pics from a homemade weather balloon commanded by a Lego man!

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1121598--lego-space-man-puts-the-spotlight-on-toronto-teens?bn=1

 

In-freakin-credible.