Canadian Teens Successfully Launch Lego Man Toward Space for Only $400
- Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:20pm by
Liz Klimas
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While some teens may spend their Saturday’s sleeping in and watching reality TV shows, two Canadian high school students show us just what a few months worth of Saturdays and less than $500 of pooled resources can do. Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad have sent a Lego man to where, perhaps, no lego man has gone before – 24 kilometres up.
Check out the video showing the finished product of the teens’ homemade balloon equipped with four cameras lifting Lego man to new heights:
The Toronto Star reports that the “near space” height the vessel reached during its 97 minute flight was three times more than commercial flight altitude and triple the height of Mt. Everest. The boys, since September, have spent their Saturdays building the balloon at Ho’s kitchen table, which the Star reports cost them about $400.
The Star has more on the process:
“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….’”
Ho had already assembled a super-light Styrofoam box to carry the cameras. So with a $500 self-imposed budget in mind, the two scoured Craigslist and Kijiji for used point-and-shoots. They needed Canons, which can be programmed to take photos every 20 seconds without stopping.
Next they sewed the parachute.
“By no means are we, like, seamstresses,” says Ho. “We broke like, what, four needles? It was ridiculous.”
Ho and Muhammad purchased a weather balloon, helium and cameras and put the whole contraption together. The boys used an app that would estimate the landing spot of the balloon, which was predicting Rochester, New York. The Star reports the boys didn’t “like their chances with U.S. Homeland Security”. So they waited till weather conditions changed and a Canadian landing site was predicted.
The Star reports that the boys were pleased with the outcome of the project:
Ho turned to Muhammad. “Congratulations Asad, we did it,” he said, and shook his friend’s hand.
Since the video was posted on YouTube on Jan. 25, it has nearly a half a million views.
[H/T Jalopnik]
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Comments (62)
gemmeri
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 10:49pmAnd they did this why? So Legos could go to space? First modular man in space? You too can build an astronaut from scratch? I don’t see the ultimate achievement here. I guess it’s better than sending something worse up, but surely they could have done something more accomplished with all that money & effort? What exactly did they prove? Anyone can send up space junk? Don’t we have enough garbage floating up there right now? Did it fall back through the atmosphere & burn up on re-entry? Did it rocket towards the ground? Was anyone hurt when gravity kicked in on the landing? Did it resemble a small meteor? An interesting science project certainly.
Report Post »MisterB
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 11:06pmSilly kids. How dare they take an interest in science and stuff?
Aren’t there any new Modern Warfare video games for them to play? Or a schoolmate to beat senseless behind the gym?
Signed,
Report Post »Social Decay
dinadp
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 11:16pmI’m more impressed with these 2 kids than the kid who did a back flip every day for a year, for $100. What these kids did will get them into university. The back flip kid can aspire to Cirque du Soleil. Maybe.
Report Post »Watchingtheweasels
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 12:38amCongratulations – these two now have more of a manned space program than NASA (which apparently has been repurposed by the Obama administration to engage in Islamic outreach).
Report Post »LANE131
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 1:54pmHey man, why do all that hard work when you can smoke weed, do drugs, drink beer, steal, and become a WSO.
Report Post »No really you did good, wish more people would build stuff, in the world of mechanics, engineering. even woodworking shop things are REAL and TRUE and their is little room for LIBRAL fanstasy and lies, their are laws of nature that govern this world and you learn real fast by building stuff that these laws of nature are not LIBRAL.
Stoic one
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 11:24pmLANE131
Report Post »You are SOoo right. I am teaching my 35 yr daughter how to refinish furniture; why? because she thinks these two pieces look like crap and I told her I would not do it and she would enjoy the challenge.
CommonSenseTalk
Posted on January 29, 2012 at 4:55pmyea what do you think you are doing. using your imagination? go back to your video games and doing nothing. If you have extra time go out and repeat what ever someone says at the OWS.
P.S. Good job, just because some people could never do this even as a adult they will have to make you look less then you are. Don’t listen to them. Keep doing. America needs more people doing, not talking.
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 7:56pmGreat Job younng men! :)
Hope they continue being so ingenious and…hope some Engineering Firm sponsors these two for College.
Report Post »Secret Squirrel
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 7:19pm.
Report Post »Good job, guys.
$400 eh?
NASA would have consumed $400 million,
but muslims would feel better.
petty1699
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 5:52pmHow did he survive without an oxygen mask?
Report Post »troymac20
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 9:13amLego men can hold their breath for a really long time.
Report Post »McNamara
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 9:21amAwesome…LOL!
Report Post »pavepaws
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 3:22pmHe looked cold.
Report Post »Hickory
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 5:29pmIf either the US or Canadian government wanted to do this, 10 yrs of environmental studies would have to be done with couple of hundred government stooges. The results would have been inconclusive. Sooooo, it would not have happened.
Report Post »TROONORTH
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 5:05pmFear not, my American friends. Your President may have surrendered the technological high ground in space to people who couldn’t launch a hot air balloon when Armstrong walked on the moon. but your best friend, CANADA is still in there swinging.
Space the final frontier . . . . eh?
Report Post »Roaran
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 10:17pmEh, space isn’t that great. If there was a reason to go, private enterprise would do it faster and cheaper. You just can’t make money going to the moon, or to mars; and, if you can understand that the only reason people make money is by supplying goods and services other people need, you can quickly put the two ideas together and realize that there is nothing people need or want from space that is near the level worth the cost it takes to get there.
There is really only one justification, and it’s a really good one, for going to space. And it is primarily for defending our country, either through space/sattelite related tactics against other countries, or from potential disasters originating from space.
Exploration should not be considered a worthwhile effort for our government.
Report Post »TROONORTH
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 9:29amRORAN, look at the technological spin-offs from the space programme and tell us that, from an economic standpoint, space exploration does not make sense. It is thinking like this, that has the United States of America begging rides to the Space Station that America ( and friends) built, from the Russians and shortly the Chinese. It is a crying shame. It is the Obamanation.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 4:43pmFor their next experiment, they hope to send one to the bottom of the Mariana Trench using nothing more than a rock and a piece of string.
Report Post »KeithOlberdink
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 4:36pmNASA tried the same thing with G.I Joe. It came in over budget of course – 98 billion over.
Report Post »salvawhoray
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 3:51pmWe’d be like……………………………..WTF
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 3:34pmLet‘s hope the Iranians don’t kidnap them.
Report Post »threedoor
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 3:24pmToo bad they didn’t have the Lumber Jack mini figure with the flannel shirt, jeans and ball cap emblazoned with a beaver, then it would have been perfect!
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 3:23pmWas this on… South Park?
Report Post »South Philly Boy
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:43pmAwesome
Report Post »Lotus503
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:32pmWoah…that’s over 78,000 feet! Way to go!
Report Post »gr8t2bfree
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:07pmCool!
Report Post »MarsBarsTru7
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:01pmGood for these kids. However, I couldn’t miss the tragic side of this story how two industrious Canadian kids were afraid of U.S. Department of Homeland Security ruining their project. Who is to blame for that? The U.S. government. Still, it could be worse. We could have the Canadian government… although they seem to be headed in the direction we came from while we‘re going in the direction they’re coming from.
Report Post »66 bronco
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 5:26pmYou right! Two Canadian kids afraid to crossover but millions of Mexicans aren’t? That’s right….the Canadian kids aren’t in the voter pool yet!
Report Post »BlackAce41
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:58pmSome one needs to put Homer Simpson on the balloon
Report Post »thegoldman
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:56pmWho knew Canada’s space program is more advanced than ours !
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:06pmThat’s funny right there- I don’t care who you are.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:59pmIn ObamaLand… the people in Government are all Space Cadets!
Report Post »dinadp
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 11:19pmWe did develop the Canadarm for the space shuttles.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:54pm.
Report Post »Johnson Space Center is right up the road. But, I don’t think NASA could launch a Paper Plane right now….
@leftfighter
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:05pmMaybe NASA could investigate the UFO in the background between 1:01 and 1:03.
It would be the perfect way to waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:14pmNo, but I bet our NASA muslim relations are right on track.
Report Post »MikeJoyous11
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:53pmThe way I see it Obama will give the kids a billion dollar loan guarantee, proclaiming they are the “hope of America.” Afterwards, the kids and all their parents and relatives and friends would move to Australia and the company would go bankrupt.
Report Post »PimpleJuice
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:49pmWhy not a lego chick?……She would have helped the balloon float with her airhead.
Report Post »ReaganBaby
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:47pmMaybe NASA should take notes
Report Post »TRONINTHEMORNING
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:38pmLove it! I hope it is inspiring to many young people.
Report Post »LLATPOH
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:34pmI love the quote on how they didn’t want to take their chances with Homeland Security.
Amazing what you can accomplish when you set your mind to a task.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:26pmSoon these boys and Canada will have a better space program than the United States under Obama.
Report Post »LLATPOH
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:32pmCATB, given the current state of NASA’s budget, it looks like they’re already past the mark. :)
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:33pmlol, & the price of LEGO’s just keep going up !!
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:38pmThe hay day of the space program amounted to nothing more than a ******* match with the soviet union. It was a source of national pride in a time when people needed it to beat the soviets, but nothing was actually accomplished.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:42pmAlready DO…..
Report Post »CatB
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:58pm@ROWGUE
“Nothing was actually accomplished” .. really ??? You need to research what things you have in your home right now that were researched and developed by the space program.
@LLATPOH
sadly you are most likely correct … haven’t been over to the Space Coast since the Obama disaster .. but I listen to their radio station daily .. .NO TRAFFIC PROBLEMS … used to be backed up with tourists and people going to see what was going on and launches.
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