Osram Opto Semiconductors partnered with the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada to help a team of 600 students send an LED illuminated message to the International Space Station as it passes overhead. On September 19th, 2009, in the dark of night, the students gathered in a remote field to send their message to the International Space Station as it passed over Calgary, 300 km (186 miles) above the earth’s surface.

Bob Thirsk, a Canadian astronaut and Schulich School of Engineering graduate, is on a six-month mission with the International Space Station. Using the LED lights provided by Osram, students communicated with Thirsk via their light message to express their support for him and his crewmates on their voyage. Using Osram’s donation of 300 units (boards), each containing 4 new OSLON high brightness LEDs, the students delivered their message with an estimated total brightness of 400 lumens per board = ~120,000 lumens. Each board uses two 9V batteries and contains a simple switch allowing the students to manually flash the LEDS to send a signal to the space station.

“We wanted the students to have free range of expression and provided LED units which can be arranged in a multitude of ways enabling the students to send their unique, illuminated message to the international space station,” said Tom Shottes, President and CEO of Osram Opto Semiconductors, Inc.. “We are just thrilled to be part of this inspiring event and to support the engineers of the future in reaching their goals, however far reaching they may be.”