Wed, Feb 01, 2012
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.
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