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Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About NASA

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(N.Morgan) NASA has many secrets we aren’t allowed to know. There are many confidential projects they work on, that are unknown to us, until the time is right. There is a lighter side to NASA you may not be aware of. Did you know that Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, handed in his NASA application a week late, and were it not for his mate secretly slipping it into the pile, he would’ve been rejected? Or that the space agency no longer has the original video tapes of said Moon landing because they recorded over them? How about the landmark case where three men from Yemen sued NASA for trespassing on Mars, claiming they inherited the planet from their ancestors 3,000 years ago?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Trek Fans Changed A Shuttle’s Name

 

 

Stardate September 17, 1976. These are the voyages of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Its mission: to perform test flights in the atmosphere. Which it didn’t actually manage because it was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight. So it never actually got to leave the atmosphere, despite being the first NASA space shuttle, and instead acted as the basic framework around which the doomed Challenger ship was based. Which you might not have known in the first place, but you definitely didn’t know that it was originally planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day, until a letter-writing campaign by a certain group of dedicated nerds changed all that. Star Trek fans petitioned then-US President Gerald Ford to ask that the shuttle be named after the Starship Enterprise, because of course they did. Ford didn’t cop to being influenced by the campaign but admitted he was “partial to the name”, and directed NASA officials to drop the Constitution moniker. When the orbiter was unveiled to the public on September 17, 1976, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the show’s original cast turned up for the dedication ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

They Use Foil A Lot

 

 

The next time someone gives you a hard time about the whole Tin Foil Hat theory, let them know that NASA LOVES tin foil. Especially the gold variety. Did you know that you have some NASA-approved technology in your kitchen, probably tucked away in a drawer, waiting for you to struggle with its ineffectual cardboard teeth when you try and tear off a piece to lay on a grill and cook bacon with? Despite being a scientifically advanced organisation making things that are supposed to survive in the vacuum of space – so, like, you’d expect a load of actual space-age technology – NASA really do have a thing for foil. Maybe not the actual aluminum tin foil we use everyday, but also not a million miles away from that. For one thing, theirs is usually gold instead of silver. By which we mean it is literally made of gold. Actual gold. Made into foil. For spaceships. Which might seem like a rather big expense, especially considering the billions spent on other materials for space flights and the like (shuttles routinely end up costing something in the region of several hundred billion dollars when they’re complete), but its use is entirely justified. As well as making all their shuttles look totally baller, gold has loads of useful properties: high heat resistance is good for shielding upon launch and in space, it reflects a lot of light for added protection, stops higher-energy particles, perfectly conducts for electronics work, plus it won’t tarnish or oxidize. So not only did you learn about how much NASA uses foil, but also how awesome gold foil is. Double fact!

 

 

 

 

A Warp Drive Is In Development

 

 

Who hasn’t dreamed of warp speed at times? No one really thought it could be a reality, until now. Another one of those projects NASA is working on that you may be unaware of. The idea of hyperspace is totally one of those ridiculous, nothing-could-be-further-from-the-truth concepts made up in science fiction, like being able to fire lasers in the vacuum of space (and them making any sort of noise). Right? Well, perhaps not, since believe it or not NASA are currently in the process of building technology similar to the sort that let the Millenium Falcon jump from one point in the universe to another, light years away, in a matter of seconds. Although hopefully there’s won’t have a propensity to dump you in an asteroid field or the mouth of a giant space worm hiding in a moon crater. it’s still a relatively fringe science, but the fact that an official, government-sanctioned and funded organisation is working on a warp drive makes it seem less like science fiction, and more like science fact. The Innovative Advanced Concepts lab has a group of physicists seriously considering the possibility of faster-than-light travel, something which should theoretically be impossible. Because how could you possibly move faster than the speed of light? That’s, like, the fastest thing. Like Usain Bolt riding a cheetah whilst strapped to a rocket. Which isn’t how they’re doing it, by the way; the current proposal for a warp drive doesn’t involve going really fast, but limiting the distance a vessel has to travel. Which means that it actually creates space-time expansion behind the ship, and compresses it in front, essentially carrying the ship forward on a wave made of space-time.

 

 

 

 

 

NASA Got Dragged Into The Cola Wars

 

 

 

There is a conflict, a sort of Civil War that has been waged in the mainland United States – before spilling out across the rest of the globe – that’s been going on for almost a century, and yet barely anyone is aware of it. That is, until they step into a supermarket or corner shop or towards a vending machine, and catch sight of the number of fizzy drinks jostling for their attention. Obviously, we’re talking about the Cola Wars between Coke and Pepsi, and doing it in a cute way, because it’s actually a pretty silly “conflict” that’s partway between friendly competition and actual corporate rivalry. It’s serious business for the companies involved, mind, which is why it’s so surprising to discover that NASA ended up getting involved. In 1985, specially cans of Coca-Cola and Pepsi (which could be drank in zero gravity, thanks to a plastic lid and straw fitted to the top) were taken aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger – which wasn’t the original plan. Only Coca-Cola was scheduled to fly, but when Pepsi found out about the company’s intention to not only get some free marketing but also observe “the effects of spaceflight on changes in taste perception with the goal of understanding altered tastes among target populations on Earth, such as the elderly”, they brought forth their own shaving cream-inspired design, NASA decided to take them along with them too. In the end nobody one because the drinks wouldn’t refrigerate properly in space and nobody drank any.

 

 

 

 

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