Canada (Two Teenagers + Lego Man) Takes Over American Space Program
Things have not been going so well for America's space program. We had a sad when we read about how the Obama Administration basically told Barack he could not haveanyexciting or inspirational "moon shot" programs, because everything had to go to Wall Street (heh heh). So not only did "moon shot"-style inspirational programs such as the "national smart energy grid" or whatever get killed, but the actual NASA program to send people to the Moon and to Mars got killed. Granted, those programs were giant boondoggles and probably never would've sent anyone anywhere, except to federal prison for bribery, but .... And now two Canadian kids have sent a (Lego) man into space, for about $400.
The clever kids put their Lego man holding a Canadian flag on a little Lego gangplank attached to a cheap weather balloon, and soon history was made:
The mission was the result of the hard work and ingenuity of friends Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, who worked on their project during free time on weekends. It took them four months to complete and cost just $400.
The space-bound contraption the two 17-year-olds came up with comprised an $85 weather balloon, a homemade parachute, a Styrofoam box, three point-and-shoot cameras, a wide-angle video camera, and a cell phone loaded with a GPS app so they’d be able to find the thing when it (hopefully) returned to Earth.
The Lego hero actually went to space! And then he landed in his Space Ship about 75 miles away, and the teens stole a car or whatever -- took public transportation, we bet! Oh Canada! -- and picked up their contraption. Now they are heroes, and Newt Gingrich is down in Florida trying to turn the Kennedy Space Center into the Newt Gingrich Historical Whore Diamond Moonraker Adultery Space Motel. [ Digital Trends ]