Saturday, January 28, 2012

My kids are jealous (hell, so am I!)

Okay, while I don't know Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, I have to respect what they did.

This pair of 17-year old guys, who live in Toronto, successfully launched a Lego figure into near-space (14 miles up) using a weather balloon, a lot of weekends, and costing about $400.

Just for fun.

They even sent 4 cameras and a GPS tracker with him, so they could film and recover him.

This is the movie they posted.





I'm thoroughly impressed guys. That's really cool.

21 comments:

Solitary Diner (Also Known as The Frugalish Physician) said...

Go Canada! This is what a functioning educational system allows people to do. :D

SuFu PhD said...

so fake, the flag isn't even blowing in the wind

/for all you conspiracy nut out there ;)

//that is pretty damn cool

Neuroscience PhD said...

I wanted to see the end, where he came down! It's awesome that you can see the weather balloon finally burst.

Rambling said...

Better than sitting on a couch playing video games.

Anonymous said...

That is profoundly cool! I wish they'd had a few dollars more so they could attach a thermometer to it.

Anonymous said...

Too bad NASA isn't worried about exploring space any more, because these guys could have worked there.

Ole Phat Stu said...

Did the GPS have a max. altitude readout?

Susan said...

So neat! This video includes the landing and interviews with the two guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lum1DMTdccE

Sharon said...

I saw these (really cute) kids on CBC. They were so casual and unassuming.
They found Legoman the next day. (He hadn't traveled far horizontally.)

Anonymous said...

I want to ride with Legoman!

James said...

That is really cool.

Here in the U.S. the thing would have been shot down, and the Muhammad kid would have been labeled an Islamic terrorist.

Anonymous said...

A nice alternative instead of stepping on all those little pieces with your feet.

murgatr

Anonymous said...

They sure are ready to be launched into the future!

So what will your kids be up to in grade 11?

Anonymous said...

I loved the fact that you could see the curve of the earth. It was an awesome sight.

--Queen Anne's Lace

Nurse Dee said...

Leave it to a Canadian to do something like this... wonder if they're from the northern part of one of the provinces as we're ALWAYS trying to find interesting things to do!

Go Canada Go!

The Bus Driver said...

Geeks of the world unite!

Anonymous said...

Oh, those spendthrift Canadians. Here in the states, where we keep our space program running on a shoestring budget, they managed to do it for $150. Though the northerners did manage to include the passenger for the extra $250...

http://space.1337arts.com/

Anonymous said...

so, did your kids ask you for $400 because they felt inspired and wanted to start a cool project like those 2 kids? :p

Anonymous said...

@ SufuPhd: It is a plastic lego flag. It won't blow in the wind.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 1:17 -- i do belive SufuPHD's tongue was planted firmly in her/his cheek when s/he made the comment about the flag. ..

And the students live right along the north shore of Lake Ontario, placing them south of a lot of Americans.

Packer said...

http://vimeo.com/15091562

Hate to burst your collective balloons , but this has been done many times before.

The real trick is the garbage bag hot air balloon, you know the one with the candle and the coat hanger, where they scramble F-15s in search of UFOs. Now that is cool, not that I would know anything about it.

 
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