Earth to space station: Dream

More than 400 students used LED lights to flash the word "Dream" to the International Space Station as it streaked across the skies of southern Alberta on Saturday night.

Packed into a tight square near an airstrip in a field south of Calgary, the University of Calgary students used specially designed LED lights to send the Morse-code message to the space station 300 kilometres overhead.

The message was intended for Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, one of the university's most famous alumni. He is aboard the International Space Station for six months.

Thirsk apparently did his best to catch a glimpse of the light show, but light cloud cover and the ISS’s phenomenal speed made it too hard to spot from above.

For those on the ground who participated in the event, dubbed "Lift Up Your Eyes," the effort was a huge success anyway.

"It worked out better than I imagined and I’m really glad I was a part of it," said Liam Nelson, a Schulich School of Engineering student who helped organize the event. "It was all about inspiring students to dream big and think about what we can accomplish."

6-minute journey

Students arrived on buses at a farm southwest of Calgary owned by Soren Christiansen,Thirsk’s friend and former U of C classmate. They spent several hours rehearsing the carefully choreographed message using light panels donated by Osram Opto Semiconductors.

The ISS appeared at 8:34 pm and made its six-minute journey across the sky just after the sun set behind the Rocky Mountains.

The students then aimed their lights upwards and flashed the world "Dream" in Morse code. Then, they spelled it out in letters and finally created the shape of an eye that winked. The action was captured by a camera crew from Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet program that was to air a story about the event Monday evening.

A student-produced video is set to be posted on YouTube and the U of C website later this week and will be forwarded to Thirsk to watch.