Nickelodeon Slime and an Adidas soccer ball are some of the latest items that will make it to outer space. A press release by SpaceX revealed that the green slime will be transported to the International Space Station. The company will do this to promote STEM interest in young school children through educational videos.
***Plat4om giveaway: Check the picture at the end for a surprise.***
According to the press release, about 5,500 other supplies and experiments will accompany the slime to space. The SpaceX Falcon 9 launched at 11:24 pm Nigerian time on Wednesday, 24th July 2019. The private US aerospace transportation services took flight from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, USA.
So far, SpaceX has cargoes 18 resupply missions to the space station for NASA. The crew members on the flight will conduct experiments to spark interest in microgravity research. It may also help students learn about STEM topics like material engineering and fluid flow. The experiment will demonstrate the effects of microgravity on slime in outer space.
Slime and soccer ball in outer space
It is interesting to see the outcome of the research because slime is a fluid that can change its resistance to flow. The vice president of the Nickelodeon parent company Viacom, Andrew Machles said, “We’re going to slime a couple of astronauts and put it through a couple of demonstrations.”
The demonstration afterwards will be shown on the Nickelodeon television channel and its online streaming site.
The Falcon 9 will also carry other scientific experiments like lab rats, microbial growths, cell cultures and an Adidas soccer ball. NASA says, “Observing and measuring the motion of soccer balls in microgravity improves understanding of the general behaviour of free-flying objects. This could contribute to better design and use of free-flying objects such as small robots in spacecraft.”
The press release also revealed that the ISS crewmembers will investigate the aerodynamics of soccer balls in gravity. It will do this by measuring “the spin speed, wobble, and spin axis of balls with different shapes and textures.”
The data gotten will then compare to Earth-based experiments.
