16 offbeat space experiments for the people
On March 18, astronaut Koichi Wakata arrived at the International Space Station to begin his three-month space sojourn — the longest ever for a Japanese spaceman. Although much of Wakata’s time in space will be devoted to official research and maintenance duties, he plans to set aside a little free time for 16 offbeat experiments proposed by the Japanese public.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected the extra experiments from nearly 1,600 proposals they received after asking the public what tests they would like to see performed in space. The 16 experiments are listed here as questions posed to Wakata.
1. Calisthenics: Is it possible to follow an audio-guided workout program in zero gravity?
2. Backflips: On Earth, backflips take a lot of practice and leg strength. How about in zero gravity?
3. Volleying (soccer): Crumple a piece of paper into a ball and try kicking it around. How does the ball behave in zero gravity? Can you volley it?
4. Push-ups: In space, can you do push-ups while facing the ceiling or walls?
5. Cartwheels: In zero gravity, can you rotate yourself continuously like a windmill?
6. Swimming: Try to swim through the air as if you were in water. Can you move forward by swimming? If not, why not?
7. Spin like an ice skater: On Earth, ice skaters can increase their rotation speed by pulling their arms closer in to the body while they spin. Does the same thing happen in zero gravity? If so, what is the reason?
8. Folding clothes: In space, can you fold clothes and put them away as you do on Earth? It seems that the shirt sleeves would be difficult to keep in place. What is the best way to fold clothes in space?
9. Magic carpet: Try to sit on a floating carpet. Magic carpets are a fantasy on Earth, but are they possible in space?
10. Water gun: On Earth, if you squeeze a drink bag, a single stream of liquid shoots out through the straw hole and falls to the ground. How does the liquid behave in zero gravity?
11. Eye drops: On Earth, you have to face upward to put eye drops into your eyes. Is there a better way to do this in zero gravity?
12. Propulsion through space: When floating in zero gravity, how much power do you need in order to propel yourself around? Can you move simply by blowing air from your mouth or by flapping a hand-fan?
The next four activities are to be performed by two people:
13. Arm wrestling
14. Shaking hands
15. Sumo
16. Tug-of-war
JAXA plans to release videos of Wakata’s experiments in July.
[Source: JAXA]
brilliant. let’s hope pink tentacle will publish those videos once released…
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1. Calisthenics: Depends on what the workout tape asks you to do.. >_>
2. Backflips: Not that hard.. Try doing one under water, then remove any
difficulty from the drag of the water.
3. Volleying (soccer): The paper ball goes flying in whatever direction you
hit it in. No gravity to make it fall in arc.
4. Push-ups: Push-ups are you working your muscles against your body
weight caused by the pull of gravity. If you push off your going to go in the
opposite direction.
5. Cartwheels: Yes you can, in space with a little assistance you can
easily be spun around like a cartwheel. If your strong enough to resist the
centrifugal force it might even be perfect.
6. Swimming: Hmm.. This is a tough one, I don’t think it’s possible
because I doubt the air has enough viscousity to pull himself forward using
friction like you would swimming in water.
7. Spin like an ice skater: Yes, the same thing happens in space, why
Newtons laws of motion..
8. Folding clothes: You press it flat against an object and fold it, if you have
one of those shirt folding boards it’ll probably be easier.
9. Magic carpet: Nothing to hold you to the carpet.. you just sort of float
off..
10. Water gun: It shoots out in beads of liquid and keeps going till hits
something, a solid object it breaks into more beads, another liquid it
coalesces.
11. Eye drops: You could do it in reverse.. but the best way would be to do
it as close to your eye as possible no gravity to make fall.
12. Propulsion through space: Not much power is needed, just a push from
your finger would move you but not very far. Flapping with fan in space
most likely would work a little more effective in space, but not as good as
just pushing off, also flapping will be just as tiring.
13. Arm Wrestling: Both opponents would have to be anchored. Isn’t that cheating?
14. Shaking Hands: Works.
15. No gravity to keep them in a circle long enough.
16. Tug-O-War: Winner is decided immediately, on the bad side the loser will come flying at you.
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These are some strange questions. Most are silly.
I’ve always wondered what an explosion in space would do. Is there a strong outward force, like on Earth? and how does the fire behave with zero gravity?
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some of them are funny/silly
everysingle one can be predicted on the earth, everything you have to know is school 9th grade physics program
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For the eyedrops, I think you’d want to slowly squeeze a drop out, leave it floating in the air, then maneuver yourself so as to put your eye onto the drop. The hard part would be squeezing the drop out such that it’s not moving too fast to put your eye onto.
That’s my best guess.
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Has the spinning like an ice skater been experimented in space? I would really like to know as I have some experiments of my oun to try. As to propulsion, a fan would work inside the space station but highly disagree out in space itself.
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