Water Balloons in Space
Not exactly but
NASA has some fun footage of people popping water balloons on the
Vomit Comet. From the website:
Did you ever wonder what it would be like to pop a water balloon in space?
Experimenters burst water balloons in the low-gravity environment produced aboard a NASA Glenn DC-9 aircraft.
The tests were conducted in part to develop the ability to rapidly deploy large liquid drops by rupturing an enclosing membrane. As can be seen from the experiment footage, the initial rupture process is nearly ideal, but the finite size of the balloon material eventually ejects a spray from the drop surface. Then, when the balloon material leaves the drop entirely, it causes a large deformation of the drop (blob) which oscillates throughout the remainder of the test. Calculations suggest that such oscillations will continue for hours before the drop eventually becomes spherical. Highspeed photographs of punctured Water Balloons in a Lab were also taken.
Our tax dollars at work. Heh... Very cool stuff!
Posted by DaveH at July 15, 2005 10:38 PM