Canadian teenagers are sent to space Lego man

Two Canadian teenagers have sent a Lego man in the confines of Earth's atmosphere using a home sewing parachutes and equipment found on Craigslist.

Two weeks ago, Mathew Ho and Muhammad Asad, both 17, attached the plastic figurine full of maple leaf flag a helium balloon, which sent 80,000 meters in the air.

The couple managed to capture the entire journey in the darkness of space, including the decline, which lasted 97 minutes, with four cameras, at a total cost of just £ 254.

Spend four months on Saturday in the project, young professional weather balloon launched from a football field. Then rose to more than double the height of the cruising altitude of commercial aircraft - about 24 in the upper atmosphere where the curvature of the Earth can be seen.

After you have connected a GPS receiver to the Styrofoam box to carry cameras and Lego-naut, the two managed to retrieve the package attached to a hand-stitched by parachute from a field of 122 kilometers of the launch site.

According to the Toronto Star, which broke the story, the two met in high school after Mohammed's family had emigrated from Pakistan. Muhammad, who spoke no English, soon became a friend of Ho and began working on the project in Ho's home last September.

"People came to the house and see us building this fantastic thing with a parachute from the beginning, and it would be like, 'What are you doing?'" Says Ho. "We want to be like, 'Let's send the camera in space." That would be like, 'Oh, okayyyyy ...' "He said.

Astrophysics Professor Dr. Michael Reid of the University of Toronto, praised the children, saying: ". It shows a huge degree of talent for 17 years to accomplish this by themselves is pretty impressive."

Lego sent a congratulatory note. "We are always surprised by the creative ways that fans of Lego use of our products, and humbled by the number of places that seem innocent, as attached to a helium balloon in space ...", the company said brand relations director, Michael McNally.