In the quest to learn and understand the universe, scientists have discovered that even the safest objects can function very differently in the environment of space, that is in microgravity.

Over the years, scientists have made many space missions, with or without humans. Of course, the main purpose of spending millions and billions of dollars on these space rockets is to learn and explore the universe, planets and what lies beyond us. However, during these missions, some objects that were sent to space to study were so unusual that you can’t even imagine them in your wildest dream. The reason behind remains simple, to learn about how these objects behave, or to see if humans could also bear out such effects of the atmosphere, etc. Many of these objects make sense — but some literally don’t (at least to us).

This article is full of such strange things that have been sent to space, read along the amusing space odyssey of these objects.

A car

Have you ever dreamt that you were flying a car, just like a plane? I am sure many of us must have experienced such a dream. And someone turned this dream into reality, and it is easy to guess who. Elon Musk, CEO and founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX (rocket company), launched one of his own sports cars into space!

Mr Musk didn’t want to risk sending something very important on the world’s most powerful rocket — instead he decided his old red Tesla roadster with a mannequin, named Starman dressed in a space-suit, strapped in the driver’s seat. The feat was in order to showcase the weight carrying capacity of the company’s new Falcon Heavy rockets.

The car had other pop culture references as well, for instance, its stereo was programmed to play David Bowie’s Space Oddity on repeat, the glove box of the car contained a copy of Douglas Adams’ novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy along with a towel and a dashboard sign reading “DON’T PANIC”, while a 5D optical disc (a revolutionary high-density data storage method designed for longevity) bore the works of another science fiction giant, Isaac Asimov.

According to the Roadster’s site, its current location is 31,439,604 miles (50,597,154 km, 0.338 AU, 2.81 light minutes) from Earth, moving away from Earth at a speed of 14,840 mi/h (23,883 km/h, 6.63 km/s). Bear in mind that the numbers are recorded at the time of writing this article, they are constantly changing.

Luke Skywalker’s lightsabre

If you are a Star Wars fan, then you probably will be happy to learn that Luke Skywalker’s lightsabre was also sent to space. In 2007, a team of seven astronauts travelled into space to deliver and assemble the Harmony Module (a.k.a. Node 2) to the International Space Station.

The lightsabre travelled on the Discovery shuttlecraft and marked the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars film which was released in 1977.

Food

Usually, when scientists are experimenting or learning the effects and results on animals and humans, food comes as their first choice to try out.

So is the case here, in 2017, a Pattie and chips were sent up in the earth atmosphere by a chip shop in Hull, England. It was attached to a weather balloon to make its journey up and was studied by local school children.

A corned-beef sandwich

In 1965, astronaut John Young smuggled a corned-beef sandwich onboard the Gemini 3 craft moments before take-off. For context, one of the objectives of the launch — Nasa’s first flight carrying more than one astronaut — was to test Nasa’s own nutritional pouches as a foodstuff.

Partway into the mission, John pulled out the sandwich and shared a bite with his crewmate, Gus Grissom. Unfortunately, the sandwich began to break apart due to the crumbly rye bread used in making it.

Apart from that, Pizza Hut’s became the first company to make a delivery into space when they struck a deal with the Russian space agency Roscosmos to have a pizza delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). The delivery was reportedly worth $1 million at the time. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachov was the lucky recipient who enjoyed this Earthly comfort.

Of course, to bear the effects of such a long journey and microgravity, the pizza was tweaked to undergo this unusual delivery. Salami was used instead of pepperoni, as pepperoni did not withstand the 60-day testing process, and extra salt and spices were used in order to tingle the taste buds that are depleted in microgravity.

The indestructible brine shrimps!

In 1972, brine shrimp were sent into space on the Apollo 16 moon mission to test the impact of cosmic radiation on human astronauts. Being almost completely indestructible — it was learnt that brine shrimps can survive the harshest of atmospheres.

According to the article published on BBC website, “You can safely dry them out, set them on fire, deprive them of oxygen, zap them with ultraviolet light, boil them at 105°C or chill them to temperatures approaching absolute zero: the point at which atoms stop moving. They can also survive extremes of pH that would dissolve human flesh, water that is 50% salt, or a bath of insecticides. They are happy in the vacuum of space or at the crushing pressures found under 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) of ocean.”

The survival skills of the brine shrimps literally defy beliefs.

Animals

Space travel has always been risky, for even a slight glitch could lead to destruction. And in the earlier days of space exploration, people were too scared to take part in space exploration. Therefore, scientists turned their attention to animals.

In 1961, Ham became the first chimpanzee in space and successfully returned to Earth. Scientists found that Ham was slightly tired after the flight, but no negative effectives were found and she was in good health and shape.

Toys

As children, all your favourite things in life are your toys, so keeping this in mind, in 2011, Nasa launched its Juno spacecraft on a mission to learn about the planet Jupiter, they included three LEGO figures on board! They hoped getting the toys involved would inspire more children to be interested in science and technology, thus they will pursue career in related fields.

The green slime!

Nickelodeon sent its iconic slime to the International Space Station to evaluate how this non-Newtonian fluid reacted in microgravity. Astronauts aboard the station played games with it, toss slime-filled balloons, make slime bubbles and even sprayed each other with slime to understand how it behaved up there.

Buzz Lightyear

A famous figure from the movie Toy Story spent 450 days in space too! In May 2008, a Buzz Lightyear model was launched into space on the Space Shuttle Discovery to spend over 15 months in space — longer than any astronaut or cosmonaut!

Buzz was sent as part of the toys-in-space educational programme designed to excite kids about space science.

Sounds

If you were asked to record a message introducing our species to an alien intelligence, what would your message contain? That was the question posed to Carl Edward Sagan (Astronomer) in 1971, when his friend Eric Burgess suggested that the Pioneer spacecraft should carry a message (or various sounds from our world). The idea gathered sufficient approval, Sagan was given a year to expand the project and put together a phonograph record as a time capsule of Earth’s diverse life and culture, let’s say Earth’s pocket history.

The idea behind sending the sounds to the deep space was to communicate the story of our world to extraterrestrials.

The identical golden records on the two Voyager crafts are packed full of information about the human race. The sounds include a shepherd herding his sheep, rainfall, a heartbeat, thunder and someone sawing woods.

A piece of the Wright Brothers’ first-ever airplane

In 1903, the Wright Brothers made the world’s first powered, controlled flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. To remember and honour their achievement in aviation, a fragment of Wright Flyer wood and fabric flew to the moon with Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong in 1969 (it was all the weight he was allowed).

And more recently, the swatch has also travelled to the Martian surface. Yes, Nasa released a picture showing Nasa’s experimental Martian helicopter holding a small swatch of fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer. The helicopter, named Ingenuity, hitched a ride to the red planet with the Perseverance rover.

The Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio, the Wrights’ hometown, donated the postage-size piece of muslin from the plane at Nasa’s request.

Amelia Earhart’s watch

The most famous aviatrix has long been an inspiration for women in engineering, aerospace and astronomy. Amelia Earhart was an early feminist and proponent of female equality. The watch that Amelia Earhart wore while making history on two trans-Atlantic flights was brought on board the International Space Station (ISS), 82 years to the day after its historic first flight.

Earhart’s wristwatch was a Longines one-button, two-register chronograph which she had worn on both her solo flights.

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Other interesting items sent to space:

Bagpipes

In 2015 Nasa, astronaut Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace on a set of bagpipes in tribute to research scientist Victor Hurst, who had passed away. The bagpipes were made for Lindgren by a company in Ayrshire in Scotland called McCallum Bagpipes.

An espresso machine

In 2015, astronauts got a chance to brew a real cup of coffee from an espresso machine dubbed the ‘ISSpresso’, designed by Italian companies Lavazza and Argotec.

The machine was delivered to the International Space Station and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was the first to take a sip, becoming the first astronaut in history to drink an espresso coffee in space.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 22nd, 2021