Posted on 03/22/2008 2:00:04 PM PDT by KevinDavis
TOKYO (AFP) - In an unprecedented experiment, a Japanese astronaut has thrown a boomerang in space and confirmed it flies back much like on Earth.
Astronaut Takao Doi "threw a boomerang and saw it come back" during his free time on March 18 at the International Space Station, a spokeswoman at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said on Friday.
Doi threw the boomerang after a request from compatriot Yasuhiro Togai, a world boomerang champion.
"I was very surprised and moved to see that it flew the same way it does on Earth," the Mainichi Shimbun daily quoted the 53-year-old astronaut as telling his wife in a chat from space.
The space agency said a videotape of the experiment would likely be released later.
Doi travelled on US shuttle Endeavour on the March 11 blast-off and successfully delivered the first piece of a Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station.
“In the absence of air?”
This was done inside the station wasnt it?
Oh yeah, in a vacuum that boomerang ain’t comin’ back!
They work because of air pressure. No sure why they think this is such a big deal.
John
Hmm. Must have been a light breeze.
Now if he’d thrown it outside the station and it returned
THAT would be news!
=8-0
I didn't, either.
Maybe it was a Nerf boomerang?
Look at the photo. It's very small.
Pard, I can't tell you all the accidental destruction I've wreaked around the house with objects smaller than that :)
Since there is no effect of gravity the lifting effect would have to be due to precession of the object. The precession would have to be caused by aerodynamic forces.
"Houston, we have a broken window here. Astronaut Doi insists that he didn't do it."
When I first read the headline I thought they meant they had tossed one in space, not in the space station. I can easily see why it works in the space station since it has an atmosphere all its own, but if the did it during an EVA exercise it would just keep going, for a long, long time!
I thought the same thing!
What would aerodynamics matter in Space? A square block will fly as well as the U2 up there...
I’m now getting the idea that it was thrown inside. If this is the case, then it is not a big deal. If, indeed it was thrown outside, then it is a big deal if it returned...
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