In Microgravity, a CD Player Becomes a Gyroscope

1. seekshelter
   May 24th, 2009 at 2:08 pm

   ..this guy moves like a demonstrator for the shopping channel...

2. seb
   May 24th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

   Pretty awesome.

3. nance
   May 24th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

   This video proves that astronauts are the biggest nerds ever. I love it.

4. Bret Hammond
   May 24th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

   Batman's a scientist

5. Kalel
   May 24th, 2009 at 8:55 pm

   Would this still work with Heavy Metal?

6. stephen
   May 24th, 2009 at 11:00 pm

   Why do they have CD players in the first place?

7. Flux
   May 25th, 2009 at 4:09 am

   This looks like serious research.
   ...
   ...
   *sigh*

8. free games for kids
   May 25th, 2009 at 4:14 am

   The future of space-flight anti-oscillating meal trays is today! No more messy spills!

9. BikerRay
   May 25th, 2009 at 5:45 am

   stephen - I wondered that. Hasn't NASA heard of mp3 players? At a fraction of the weight.

10. Smartinp
    May 25th, 2009 at 5:53 am

    Mammy? I want to be a scientist

11. ted
    May 26th, 2009 at 6:31 am

    I have no idea what he was getting at. It's like coming in at the middle of a movie or lecture.

    I could understand if they were using CDs as a recording medium for some of their work, but I think MP3 players would be just as simple.

12. astro
    May 26th, 2009 at 9:56 pm

    MP3 players for astronauts

13. Zaphod
    May 27th, 2009 at 11:54 am

    Our tax dollars hard at work. End the space program now. Privatize it and really kick start the economy.

14. omechengineeru
    May 28th, 2009 at 9:08 am

    Its called science and just because you don't understand the usefulness of these goofy little experiments doesn't mean they don't have significance to us engineers. The space program is prob one of the most important things humans have ever done.

15. Mathme
    May 28th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    There are some brilliant comments about how this is "great research" and our "tax dollars hard at work." I would like to point out that, yes, astronauts can only do one thing all day. This 5 minute video did, in fact, consume an entire day's worth of work and nothing else was accomplished. I'm sure you spend every waking second working.

    This video will probably be used in elementary schools all around the country and probably even in middle school science classes. This is a free video that can be used to demonstrate some interesting physics concepts using everyday materials that the students will be able to relate to. It's a great teaching tool and was probably put together after they finished the serious work.

16. iggy
    August 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    What a great way to describe a "space clamp" - something which holds an object oriented in a certain direction while floating in microgravity. This is how spacecraft can point in one direction. Example: suppose you want an orbiting satellite (such as GPS) to always point down toward Earth. Spin the onboard gyroscopes. Voila! A "space clamp" to hold the thing pointing in one direction. You need an actual spinning disk to do this, by the way. Hardwired items such as memory sticks won't work...

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