Sending Ponies into Near Space · 9:56pm Aug 19th, 2014
I've been expecting this news story for a while. I always assumed it would come from a brony physics student team somewhere. But the first mission to send a pony into space, looks set to be launched by a 11-year old Rainbow Dash fan from Michigan. Congratulations to Katherine Gilbert. It's cool to know Dash is helping to inspire the next generation of space scientists and engineers.
And lets not stop now! Can Katherine and her fathers' work inspire further attempts? Let's have a space race! Who will be the first to launch Twilight Sparkle? Or Luna? Or Pinkie Pie? Who can get the best photo of a pony in space showing the black sky and curved surface of the earth? Launching a weather balloon to 37km altitude is not too hard these days. There are plenty of how-to videos on YouTube. There's a MIT group who did it with $150. And here's another with nice pictures and music:
Coming Soon: Ponies in Space!
Prediction: The first manned mission to Mars will be greeted by a Pinkie Pie. Whether the Pinkie in question will be plastic, plush, or person is left as an exercise for the reader.
There's a Luna carving somewhere on a circuit board in the ISS
It is good that ponies go into space. It is too bad that we can only send them up 400 KM. Once, we could send them up 400 MM. We threw away that capability. SpaceX plans to give us back that capability. When we land on Mars, she should take ponies with us.
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¡Now with Muppets, Pigs, and Ponies!
2385179 It can be done!