RS Components Collaborates With Mattel For The 'Extreme Toy Travel Campaign'

It didn't have the drama of extremely-high-altitude skydives performed by humans, but then again, it's Superman after all.

RS Components collaborated with the Mattel Toy Company to send a Superman Action figure to the fringe of space under a weather balloon, and then released the toy which freefell back to Earth. Inspired by Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking freefall from the edge of space in 2012, Mattel Italy, together with La Scatola dei Giocattoli, a support project for Mattel customers, approached RS to replicate this jump with one of its Superman action figures. RS teamed up with Rlab, a peer run community hackspace, card modeller Jude Pullen, and high altitude balloonist Dave Akerman, to send Superman to space and back in a custom-built capsule.

A team of makers, hackers and engineers on the DesignSpark community designed and built a capsule that is attached to a weather balloon. The craft, packed full of electronics and 3D printed components designed for the mission using DesignSpark software, travelled to a height of around 29 miles at the edge of space, where Superman then freefell back to Earth. The capsule included a Raspberry Pi to capture mission data, as well as a specially designed tracking unit to locate and retrieve Superman.

The launch took place on September 12, in the UK (Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire). During the flight, the mission data (altitude, temperature, weather) was collected along with HD videos and images. Both Superman and the capsule were monitored through a radio connection and a GPS. At the end of the mission, RS posted the video footage and all the design files, bill of materials and design notes on the DesignShare section of DesignSpark under an open source licence so others could build their own capsule.

The space capsule weighed about 5.5 pounds and slowly drifted down on a parachute with low impact. Since temperatures can drop to around -60 degrees Centigrade at high altitudes, and electronics tend to get warm when running, carefully housing them inside the capsule was important. Hence the components and devices were carefully tested beforehand to ensure they were able to withstand the temperatures. The flight usually lasts a few hours, so RS experimented with batteries to ensure they were active throughout the duration of the mission.

"This project is a demonstration of our innovation in engineering design, using our industry-leading design resources, together with products such as the Raspberry Pi and 3D printing, made possible through collaboration with leading engineers and technology experts via DesignSpark," said Pete Wood, DesignSpark Community Manager at RS Components. "It has been a unique experiment as it involved carefully identifying the several challenges associated with High Altitude Ballooning (HAB) and developing a team of engineering experts who came up with the right plan for the capsule."

"I wanted to personally follow the launch of the spaceship with Superman," said Andrea Ziella, Associate Manager Digital Marketing - Mattel South East Europe. "It has been very exciting for me to see the Toy Travel in Space project come to life. The whole experience felt like travelling back in time to when I was a kid and dreamt about going to the moon with ships I had built myself! We are delighted to be partnering with La Scatola dei Giocattoli and RS Components to create this unique journey that demonstrates their innovation and technology expertise."

FMI: http://hken.rs-online.com  Video