Teen Launches Lego Man to Edge of Space

You know that Can Do attitude that America is so well-known for? It’s alive and well, at least in Canada. 17 year oldToronto natives Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammad have managed to do launch a lego minifig into the stratosphere on a balloon. And of course they made a video.

Their photos show a conquering Lego man staring at the camera, brandishing a Canadian flag, with the graceful curves of Earth filling the space behind it. Its a posture that would fit an Everest mountain climber summiting, and it’s made all the more cute by it being a tiny plastic figurine.

The balloon carrying the minifig managed to reach an altitude of 80,000 feet, which is roughly 15 miles up. For comparison, the true edge of space is around 60 miles up. At its peak altitude, the balloon burst, sending the minifig and the camera on a long, dramatic fall to Earth, before being saved by a homemade parachute.

The students captured 1,500 pictures over the flight’s 97 minute duration, along with 2 videos. On Youtube, where they posted the footage, their video has gotten over a million views.

The two 12th graders spent a little over $400.00 to buy and build the craft over the course of 4 months. To keep the cameras working at such high altitudes, the students adopted a complex and expensive solution: hand warmers.

"We didn’t really believe we could do it until we did," said Ho to the Toronto Star.

SPACE