During the STS-123 mission to the International Space Station in March 2008 Japanese astronaut Takeo Doi tested a special boomerang in space to see how it worked in the microgravity environment of the ISS. The boomerang used in the experiment was a “Roomerang,†a small, tri-blade boomerang intended for use indoors in a small area or outdoors in light winds. IT was designed by boomerang expert Gary Broadbent, and it travels 5 to 8 feet before returning to the thrower.
The Japanese Space Agency has now released the video of the event:
As you can see, it worked very well, even in the small space of the ISS module. Broadbent told Universe Today that in the pressurized environment of the ISS, “microgravity has very little effect on the boomerang flight. The boomerang is so versatile, it can be tuned to fly in a perfect path back to the thrower, with gyroscopic precession and angular momentum over-compensating the lack of gravity.â€
But Broadbent also said that a boomerang would not work in the vacuum of space. “You need air molecules to generate the lift to make the boomerang turn,†he said.
Here’s our earlier article about the boomerang experiment.
Original News Source: You Tube
Steven Hawking famously calculated that black holes should evaporate, converting into particles and energy over…
NASA has given the go-ahead for SpaceX to work out a plan to adapt its…
The JWST is astronomers' best tool for probing exoplanet atmospheres. Its capable instruments can dissect…
First light for the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) is quickly approaching and the telescope is…
A beautiful nebula in the southern hemisphere with a binary star at it's center seems…
The history of astronomy and observatories is full of stories about astronomers going higher and…