Weird Stuff Sent into Space
January is traditionally a month for out with the old and in with the new. Clean the closets, toss that old Tupperware container in the back of the refrigerator that appears to have a science experiment growing inside. You’re not alone. Even government agencies have to deal with an overload of junk, some harder to get rid of than that Tupperware container. One agency with a big problem is NASA.
Space is vast and at the same time crowded with garbage. Humans
have been sending items into orbit for half a century and some of it stays
there. Currently there are nearly 7,700 satellites within a few hundred miles
of the Earth. That number could grow to several hundred thousand by 2027. A lot
of trash is already on the Moon right, including nearly 100 bags of human waste.
Junk in orbit includes spent spacecraft, rocket boosters, and stuff lost by
astronauts including a glove, a wrench, and a toothbrush.
But that’s not the weirdest stuff shot into space.
Light saber
The force was with them. In 2007, the lightsaber prop belonging to Luke Skywalker was taken on a mission to the International Space Station. Star Wars fans gave it a solemn escort to an airport in California, and from there, it went to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lightsaber spent two weeks in orbit, and was later returned to Industrial Light and Magic.
Moon tree seeds
What’s that growing in my backyard? During the Apollo 14
NASA mission to the moon in 1971, astronauts packed hundreds of tree seeds in
their personal kits. Upon returning to Earth, the seeds were germinated by the
Forest Service and planted throughout the U.S. in 1976 to celebrate the
country’s bicentennial. Unfortunately, the location of the trees was lost and,
except for a few, no one knows for sure where they were planted.
Man hole cover
Duck. Between May 28 and Oct. 7, 1957, the U.S. military
carried out Operation Plumbbob, a series of nuclear tests in the Nevada desert.
Two of the nuclear detonations, were carried out underground, to test if
nuclear fallout could be contained. The first was on July 26, 1957. An atomic
bomb detonated at the bottom of a 500-foot-deep hole, covered by a 4-inch-thick
iron cover, launching it into space. Scientist expected that the cover would
land back on Earth, but it didn’t.
I'll bet that got your attention. The artist Andy Warhol doodled a sketch
of a penis that may or may not have ended up on the moon. It was one of six on
a tiny ceramic tile dubbed the Moon Museum. Sculptor Forrest Myers petitioned
NASA to place the tile on the Moon. His request was denied, but he supposedly contacted
scientists from Bell Laboratories, who secretly attached the tile to the Apollo
12 lunar lander. Since the lander sits on the Moon, this story can’t be
confirmed, but the first astronauts who return may be getting an unexpected
eyeful.
Sperm
Speaking of penises…One NASA mission included a sample of bull
sperm. The result was the tiny cells moved faster than usual. Phosphorylation,
the process of regulating cellular cycles and growth stopped in sea urchin
sperm. Rat’s testes shrank along with their sperm count. Cockroaches, on the other
hand, were unaffected by spaceflight or exposure to radiation.
Klingon Night at the Opera
Revenge is a dish best served along a side of aria. In 2010
the producers of “u” (the opera's title) sent a message by radio telescope to the Klingon home
star, Arcturus, to invite them to attend the opening night performance in the Netherlands.
In the Klingon tongue, “u” means universe and it was the first opera performed entirely
in Klingon. The 90-minute production tells the story of Kahless the
Unforgettable. After betrayal by his brother and witnessing his father’s murder,
Kahless fights to regain his honor by traveling into the underworld. He wages epic battles, reunites with his true love, Lukar, and eventually faces his
bitter enemy, the tyrant Molor.
P. S. The Klingons did not
RSVP.
An Ad for Doritos
Would aliens like junk food? The makers of Doritos thought
so. In 2008, for six hours the EISCAT European space station on the Norwegian
island of Svalbard sent an advertisement for Doritos with a radar array, normally
used to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The ad went to Ursa Major which contains
a possible habitable zone. EISCAT received an undisclosed donation for the use
of their facilities. There’s no report on whether aliens preferred Nacho Cheese,
Cool Ranch, or Flaming Hot.
L. A. Kelley writes scify & fantasy with humor, romance, and a touch of sass. She prefers to keep her feet on the ground.
