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Water Balloons in Space

by Jason Major on June 30, 2012

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As part of his ongoing (and always entertaining) “Science Off the Sphere” series, Expedition 31 flight engineer Don Pettit experiments in orbit with a classic bit of summertime fun: water balloons.

Captured in real-time and slow-motion, we get to see how water behaves when suddenly freed from the restraints of an inflated latex balloon… and gravity. With Don NASA doesn’t only get a flight engineer, it gets its very own Mr. Wizard in space — check it out!

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About

A graphic designer living in Providence, RI, Jason writes about astronomy and space exploration on his blog Lights In The Dark, Discovery News and here on Universe Today.

Tagged as: Don Pettit, gravity, orbit, Science, space, water, water balloon

  • http://twitter.com/InvaderXan Markus ? Hammonds

    I love Don Pettit so much

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-Frushour/758114941 Kevin Frushour

      He is great – these are wonderful. He “um’s” and “ah’s” a bit too much for my tastes – HOWEVER that’s not a big deal compared to the great info he’s giving us.

      • Aqua4U

        Whatah do you, um meanah by ah your statement? Don’s a very experienced astronaut and quite intelligent, but you are right about his speech patterns. I take it as the sign of an extremely active mind – parsing his interpretations in a reductionist manner so that his complex thoughts are understood.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-Frushour/758114941 Kevin Frushour

          ‘Zactly.

  • Bob Simon

    I found the exploding spherical ballon to be most interesting, because at one point in the slo-mo video the shape is very similar to photos of astronomic nebulae. The Ant nebula in particular comes to mind. Makes me wonder if the rules governing the shape of a nebula are simpler than science makes them out to be.

  • Paul Hieronymus

    My son loved this :)

  • Meredith Neria

    fantastic show and interesting explanation for the scientifically challenged ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/john.clinton.716 John Clinton

    I would like to see how a bird would react in zero gravity.

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