As a NASA astronaut, her father can only contact her via the remote phone, but only occasionally. This makes her feel very alone and she feels her time with her father is very limited.
To remind her father that he is always on her mind, Stephanie decides to try to send a heartfelt and memorable message to her father from Earth.
As her father likes to take photos in his spare time, Stephanie has an idea and enlists the help of a car manufacturer – Hyundai Motor – in the hope that he can help her send a photo into space.
Hyundai Motor also agreed to Sphinx’s request to launch a Hyundai Genesis model, 11 of which were in the Delamar Dry Lake desert in Nevada, using tire markers to write Stephanie’s letter to her father.
Depending on the environmental conditions and the method used, they hoped that the expected message would be clearer to allow her father to see her from space.
The team calculated the latitude and longitude precisely in advance to determine the shape and style of the message.
With the help of a helicopter to oversee from a panoramic vantage point, the eleven Hyundai cars rolled together and soon tire marks began to form shapes and words.
The letter is designed in Stephanie’s exacting handwriting style.
It measured approximately 59.8 million square meters and was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest tire track image ever created.
Eventually, Stephanie’s father saw the letter and called them. He said to his daughter, “Hi Stephanie, I just wanted to call you to say I love you and thank you.”
