Teens Photograph Lego Minifigure at Edge of Space for $400

Go Canada! Very cool project. For folks in the Bay Area and interested in this kind of hobby, check out the space program at Noisebridge.

If you're interested in high altitude exploration, take a look at UKHAS:<p><a href="http://ukhas.org.uk/" rel="nofollow">http://ukhas.org.uk/</a><p>There's a beginner guide and information on current projects. Cambridge University Spaceflight is of particular interest - they're working on amateur rocketry in space, not just near-space.

LEGO should have a contest with a million dollar prize for the first person to put a lego brick on the moon.<p>(but the problem would be proving it)

This is a reminder that robotic exploration is much, much cheaper than sending humans. We should send robots (and Lego figures) into space.

It's funny, we routinely travel thousands of miles across the earth on jets, yet going ten miles up is like going off the edge of the world.

I saw this earlier and thought it was pretty cool. I like the idea of sending stuff into the atmosphere. I'm curious as to what the repercussions of something like this are though. I'd guess that there are laws or international conventions on controlling air traffic.

If anyone is interested in why they wanted Canons it's because they probably used the custom firmware CHDK and a time-lapse script to automate their photo taking.<p><a href="http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK" rel="nofollow">http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK</a>

I would think a cell phone camera would have served just as well, something like a used Nokia 5800 would be good as it has a reasonable camera.<p>The weight would be less and you could do away with the separate cell-phone for GPS. One would need to code a little to make the camera auto-shoot, but while at it you could record all sorts of interesting accelerometer and GPS data. Would be a nice school science project.

I'd hire either of these teens right out of high school. There's a reason that they didn't use [insert TV show] action figures. It says a lot about the kind of people who love LEGOs.<p>On a side note: I'm still not diggin' what the company is doing with LEGOs for girls. It's insulting to all genders when they advance the all-girls-want-to-be-princesses agenda. As much as I love the original product, I was an early supporter of the stop-selling-out-girls petition (<a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-lego-to-stop-selling-out-girls-liberatelegos" rel="nofollow">http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-lego-to-stop-selling-ou...</a>).

24 kilometers isn't close to be on the "edge of space".<p>Still nice job by a couple of 17-year-olds.

Any idea what might happen if they took down a plane? Would it have been their "fault"?<p>I know the chances are something like a trillion to one.