Viral Video Drawing Massive YouTube Views

One of the latest viral videos on YouTube was created by two high school seniors from Canada, who were inspired by edge-of-space projects using weather balloons. Their video shows a Lego man holding a small Canadian flag as he climbs to 80,000 feet, high enough to clearly see the blackness of space and the curvature of the Earth. Since the video's posting on January 25th, it's attracted over two million views.

CBC News reports Mathew Ho and his friend, Asad Muhammad, are both 17 years old, and accomplished their goal for just $400. Ho says of similar previous projects in the US and Britain, "Right when we saw the videos, we were like: 'This is definitely plausible, we can pull this off, too, if we really put our minds to it.'" They searched online for cheap, used cameras, specifically Canon models which could be set to automatically snap photos every 20 minutes.

The body of the "spacecraft" was constructed of lightweight styrofoam, with room for four cameras and a GPS-enabled cellphone to allow tracking after the balloon burst and the package fell back to the surface. The parachute was sewn by hand by Ho and Muhammad. The weather balloon and helium were purchased.

Weather forecasts for their original launch date predicted the package would travel from Toronto to near Rochester, NY, which the teens worried would raise issues with US homeland security. So they waited for a day with winds which would ensure a landing site in Canada. That day turned out to bring freezing rain at launch time, but the mission was successful. The flight lasted 97 minutes and covered more than 120 km. It was a week before the boys were able to locate and recover the downed balloon.

The Toronto Star reports the boys are pleased with the outcome of their project, but neither plans a career in aerospace.

FMI: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/01/25/lego-balloon-space.html