Magic flying space carpet rides - in space!
There's many a person who has dreamt of having a ride in a zero-g environment, and all the odd and unnatural stuff you can get up to without the large pull of gravity on you, but not many have had the chance to.
A Japanese astronaut, Koichi Wakata, has been given a list of 1597 tasks that have been set by hundreds of people ranging through all ages and from all walks of life.
He picked sixteen of them, from riding a carpet around in the air to folding clothes, arm-wrestling, pushups and more. We guess that the pushups will just send him across the room, and he won't get to move back down to the ground - but at least they'd be easier!
Being the economistic and clever bunch that they are, the Japanese space agency will even let you rent an astronaut's time - only $85, 285 an hour - plus transport costs of materials at a whopping $51, 170 per kilo.
That means that if you'd like an astronaut to juggle three pineapples in space for a whole hour, and considering that the average weight of a pineapple is a kilo, that you're looking at a tab of $238, 795!
This might not be the most prudent or helpful way to spend an astronaut's time (in fact we're fairly certain it's not helping humanity in any way at all save for entertainment), but it sure is amusing.
The footage from his sixteen space-capades will be given to Japanese media, and will most likely find its way online in the coming weeks.
Head over to the Sydney Morning Herald to check out a little more.
Until then, we're going to start saving for our very own pineapple-juggling spaceman - watch this space!
Issue: 133 | February, 2012