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Space is becoming progressively fulfil with human - made things . Most of these aim you would expect to obtain in infinite , such as functioning spacecraft , astronaut geared wheel or free - floatingspace junk . But there are also a few funny token that humans have put into space — and not always on purpose .
From dinosaur bones and a elephantine disco ball , to musical musical instrument and a Gorilla gorilla suit , here are 15 of the weirdest thing humans have sent to space .
A camera shows SpaceX’s Starman mannequin and Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster as they fly above Earth.
A Tesla and its “astronaut” driver
On Feb. 6 , 2018,SpaceXlaunched company founderElon Musk ’s very own cherry - red Tesla Roadster into space after the billionaire opted to use the railroad car and its spacesuit - dress dummy passenger , hump as " Starman , " as the run payload on the inaugural mission of the Falcon Heavy rocket .
The Starman - carrying Tesla was in the beginning think to be put into field around Mars , which sparked awe that the auto could become apotential biothreat that might contaminate the planetif it ever fell to the surface . But the vehiclemassively overshot the Red Planetand is now stuck in an domain around the Lord’s Day , which takes around 557 Clarence Day to complete .
you could cover the car and its passenger in real sentence on the websitewhereisroadster.com . As of May 2023 , the Tesla had complete around 3.4 orbits around the Lord’s Day and traveled more than 2.5 billion miles ( 4 billion klick ) . This mean the car has exceeded its warrantee by more than 73,000 clip .
The testing site in Nevada used during Operation Plumbbob.
Starman has long lay off radiate images back to Earth , but astronomers predict that the passenger and carare probable to have sustained significant damage .
Maintenance hole covers (via atomic blasts)
Between May 28 and Oct. 7 , 1957 , the U.S. military carried out a serial publication of nuclear tests in the Nevada desert in a undertaking know as Operation Plumbbob . The tests included 29 atomic explosion , two of which , known as Pascal - A and Pascal - B , were carried out underground , to try out if nuclear side effect could be contain .
Pascal - A was carry out July 26 , 1957 , when an atomic bomb detonated at the bottom of a 500 - infantry - deep ( 152 meters ) hole , which was cover by a 4 - column inch - chummy ( 10 centimeters ) iron natural covering . The force out of the detonation " inevitably " blew the maintenance hole into the sky , Robert Brownlee , an astrophysicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and lead scientist of the Pascal mental test , toldBusiness Insiderbefore his dying in 2018 . Brownlee had expected that the covering fire would land back on Earth , but it was never regain .
To further try what bump to the maintenance hole , Brownlee repeated the experiment on Aug. 27 , 1957 . This time , for Pascal - B , Brownlee tape the experiment with a photographic camera that shot one skeletal frame per msec , which revealed the cover version could have pass on a top speed of 125,000 miles per hour ( 201,000 km / h ) . That speeding is around five times the outflow speed of Earth , hint that both maintenance gob likely made it into space . It also makes the blade circuit a candidate for the fastest human - made objects ever created .
Celestis' Goddard Flight rocket takes off on 9 December 2024.
Presidential hair (eventually)
On President ’s Day 2023 ( Feb. 20 ) , Celestis , a Texas - based company that particularise in space inhumation , announcedthat it would be putting lock of former presidents ' fuzz on board the forthcoming " endeavour " mission , which is schedule to launch from Cape Canaveral , Florida .
Genetically verified hair’s-breadth samples from George Washington , John F. Kennedy , Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan will be include on the Enterprise spacecraft , along with the cadaver of others , including some of the cremated clay of " Star Trek " creator Gene Roddenberry , who already had some of his ash transported into space aboard Celestis ' first flight in 1997 .
The ballistic capsule will eventually end up beyond the outer reaches of thesolar scheme .
The Humanity Star on display before being sent into space.
A giant disco ball
On Jan. 21 , 2018 , American aerospace maker Rocket Lab on the Q.T. launched a massive multisided mirror into space aboard one of the company ’s trial run flight of stairs .
The strange aim , which was dubbed the " Humanity Star , " was around 3 feet ( 1 m ) all-inclusive and had 65 reflective panels on its aerofoil . It chop-chop rotate in scope around Earth and reflected enough sunlight to Earth ’s control surface to be visible to the nude eye . The glistening satellite was designed to be " a bright symbol and monitor to all on Earth about our fragile place in the universe . "
However , the elephantine disco ball ’s time in infinite was short - lived . It reentered Earth ’s atmosphere on March 22 , two month after it launched and around seven months earlier than expected , fit in toThe Atlantic .
The “Moon Museum” plaque that supposedly ended up on the moon.
The Humanity Star is not the first disco ball to be launch into space . The Starshine project , which was pass by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory , launched three similar objects into space between 1999 and 2001 , each of which stayed in field for more than a year ; Japan also launch a mirror - covered satellite , call in Ajisai , in August 1986 , which is still in Earth orbit today , according to Live Science ’s sister siteSpace.com .
A sketched penis (possibly)
The artist Andy Warhol drew a rather unrefined sketch that may or may not have ended up on the moon .
The doodle was one of six admit on a tiny ceramic roofing tile known as " Moon Museum , " which was the brainchild of statue maker Forrest Myers , who petitionedNASAto place the tile on the moon . Myers ' request was deny , but the sculptor supposedly contacted scientist from Bell Laboratories , who secretly attached the tile to the Apollo 12 lunar lander , which currently model on the moon , accord toThe Museum of Modern Art ( MoMA ) . However , this story has never been officially confirmed .
Warhol claimed that the resume is actually just his initial , but we ’ll let you decide for yourself .
Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa with his ISS model in 2012.
Various Lego pieces
Lego has a prospicient history with space . The construction kit can help youngsters ( and youngsters at nerve ) build replica of real - life rockets . But the famous plastic spell have also made their mode into space and have even made their home in the ballistic capsule they are modeled on .
In 2012 , Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa build a to - scale version of theInternational Space Station(ISS ) during his stay on the post . It took him more than two time of day to build up the model , which is quite telling considering the lack of graveness .
In 2019 , the Lego caller alsosent a model of a conceptual next lunar pedestal to the boundary of spaceby attach it to a specialized balloon .
Jeff Bezos photographed in front of Blue Origin’s New Sheppard rocket.
to boot , there are three custom Lego figurines currently circlingJupiteron control board NASA ’s Juno investigation , which was set in motion in 2011 to bring out insight into the gas colossus and its lunar month . The figurines describe the Roman gods Juno and Jupiter , as well as Galileo Galilei , who observe Jupiter ’s four largest moons .
Jeff Bezos (and other civilians)
We ’re not trying to call Jeff Bezos a weirdo by include him on this list ; the strange matter about his journeying into space is that the group he travel with was the first all - civilian gang to discharge a subocular flight .
On July 20 , 2021 , Bezos — along with pioneer aviator Wally Funk , aperient student Oliver Daemen and Bezos ' new pal Mark — blasted off on Blue Origin ’s New Shepard rocket from the party ’s launching site in West Texas . The flightlasted only around 10 minutes , but the crew ’s condensation did make it past the Kármán line — the bound between Earth ’s ambiance and extinct space , which lies around 62 miles ( 100 klick ) above sea storey — before mildly lessen back to Earth .
However , there is some public debate as to whether Bezos and the other civilian crewmembers can in reality be considered astronauts . Some experts argue that the crew ’s minimum flying training and want of expertiseexclude them from earning this title , which others must knead much hard to attain .
ADromaeosaurusskeleton dating to 75 million years ago.
Dinosaur bones
Bezos and companionship are not the only oddity that Blue Origin has sent into space . On May 20 , 2021 , the company also launched nearly 200 individual dinosaur bone fragment on another New Shepard rocket .
The bones , which particular date to between 66 million and 70 million years ago , likely belonged toDromaeosaurus , a bird - like bird of prey that was around 7 feet ( 2 grand ) long and 2 foot ( 0.6 m ) high at the rosehip , Space.comreported . The bones were auctioned off upon their payoff to Earth to raise money for charity .
But these fragments were not the first dinosaur bones to be sent to space . In 1985 , a piece of a vertebra and an shell from a babyMaiasaurawere flown on NASA ’s space shuttle Challenger . And in 1998 , a 210 - million - year - oldCoelophysisskull fly on Challenger ’s heir , space shuttle Endeavour . component part of aTyrannosaurus rexwere also establish on the first test flight of NASA ’s Orion space vehicle in 2014 , according to Space.com .
A tardigrade viewed under the microscope.
Tardigrades
set of different animate being have been institutionalise into space . Some of these you plausibly already know about , such as bounder , apes , monkeys and gnawer . But lots of other brute have made it into blank , including cats , toad frog , fruit flies , tortoise , fish and man-of-war .
However , the eldritch fauna to be ship to space are arguablytardigrades , also known as water bear , which are renowned for being able to outlive utmost conditions . In 2007 , they also became the first animal to survive verbatim exposure to space when they were strapped to the exterior of the Russian Foton - M3 spacecraft as it orbited Earth for 12 years , allot to theEuropean Space Agency .
A follow - up newspaper publisher , put out 2008 in the journalCurrent Biology , revealed that 68 % of the tardigrades bring off to survive direct exposure to space , despite the extreme cold , dehydration and bombardment by cosmic radiation .
Astronaut Scott Kelly wearing a gorilla suit on the ISS.
A gorilla suit
cosmonaut also seem to enjoy get dressed up as animals in space .
In 2016 , retired astronaut and current U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly smuggle a full - body gorilla suit to his identical twin Scott while he was staying on board the ISS . This resulted in a viralvideo , in which Scott surprised and chase after British astronaut Tim Peake through the ISS modules ( although Peake later acknowledge to being in on the caper ) .
Mark Kelly had to begin with try out to smuggle a gorilla suit to Scott in 2015 , but the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket it was lay away on exploded in a clod of flames shortly after liftoff .
Astronaut Jim Reilly poses with Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber and R2D2 before taking the famous prop into space.
Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber
The original Star Wars trilogy , released between 1977 and 1983 , is wide credit for inspire an entire generation of astronauts and outer space scientist . So it is meet that one of the movies ' most famous props — Luke Skywalker ’s lightsaber — would eventually end up in space .
The lightsaber was launched into space in 2007 with a squad of spaceman who return and assembled the Harmony module ( aka Node 2 ) to the ISS . The launch coincided with the thirtieth day of remembrance of the first Star Wars film , " A New Hope , " but the lightsaber is actually Luke ’s second laser brand ( the green one ) , which boast in the third film , " Return of the Jedi . "
Luke ’s lightsaber is n’t the only Star Wars memorabilia to have been sent into blank space . In 2017 , as part of the marketing for " The Last Jedi " — the second film in the Modern trilogy — Disney arranged for a replica of the orbicular orange tree droid BB-8 to be send to the ISS for the astronauts to play with , Space.com report .
Amelia Earhart pictured in the cockpit of the Lockheed Electra in 1937.
Pizza delivery
In 2001 , Pizza Hut became the first society to rescue food to space when it mail a pizza pie to the ISS on board a resupply Eruca vesicaria sativa . The recipient role of the pizza was Yuri Usachov , who wasfilmedeating the tasty treat along with other Russian cosmonauts .
The disk - breaking legal transfer was a shameless marketing ploy , which cost the fellowship more than $ 1 million ( $ 1.7 million in today ’s dollar bill ) . But the chef who cooked the pizza still had to make some special retainer for its unusual journeying : surplus seasoning was added to the food for thought because astronauts can lose their signified of taste in quad , and salami was used instead of pepperoni because it had a prospicient shelf life and the pizza pie had to be prepare well in advance of the launching , the BBC reportedat the sentence .
The pizza is n’t the only food that has been successfully delivered to the ISS . In December 2021 , Uber Eats announced that it had delivered food to the ISS via Nipponese enterpriser and space tourist Yusaku Maezawa , who in brief visited the station , according toCNET . The meal admit miso - coated mackerel and crybaby with bamboo shoots .
The Wright flyer photographed on on Dec. 17, 1903.
Amelia Earhart’s watch
Amelia Earhartwas a trailblazing aviator who in 1932 splendidly became the first cleaning woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo , as well as achieve other pregnant firsts and intermit multiple air records . The pioneering pilot was dare bushed in 1937 , when her plane was lose as she essay to circumnavigate the globe . Her plane and eubstance were never find .
Earhart ’s fib has been an inhalation for many young distaff airman and astronauts , include NASA astronaut Shannon Walker , who took Earhart ’s personal wristwatch — which Earhart wore on her famous trans - Atlantic flight — with her to the ISS in 2010 , harmonize toExperts Watches . ( Earhart wore a different watch on her fatal last journeying . )
Parts of the Wright brothers' plane
go on with the aviation drift , parts of Orville and Wilbur Wright ’s first plane , the Wright Flyer , have also made it into space — on two freestanding occasion .
The biplane , which is also known as the Kitty Hawk , is famous for being the first plane to make a sustained flight with humans aboard , after make four brief flights on Dec. 17 , 1903 , before being blow over and destroy . Its longest trajectory lasted only 59 seconds , during which the planer go 852 pes ( 260 m ) .
In 1969 , Neil Armstrong — the first person to walk on the moonlight — took parts of the Wright Flyer with him to the moonlight during NASA ’s Apollo 11 mission , Time magazinereported . The fragments , which include four pieces of muslin cloth from the plane ’s flank and two patch of its propellor , were included in Armstrong ’s personal druthers outfit , a small bag of personal belongings that each spaceman could bring onto the lunar faculty .
Astronaut Jessica Meir playing the saxophone on the ISS.
And in 2021 , another swatch of material from the airplane shoot down on Mars along with NASA ’s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity chopper . The plane part issafely secured beneath the solar panels on inventiveness , which has since made more than 50 flight on the Red Planet .
Musical instruments
For spaceman exist on the ISS , there can be a psychological price to spending so much time away from Earthly comforts . To overcome these obstacles , several astronaut have taken instruments — include keyboard , guitars , flutes , bells , bagpipes , a sax and even a didgeridoo — with them to space .
For the most part , playing an instrument in space is very like to playing it on Earth , but microgravity can sit issues . For example , if cosmonaut toy a wind instrument , like the champagne flute , on the ISS , they must keep their foot in eyelet to blockade them from being propelled backward by the air they are blowing out of the instrument , according toNASA .
However , there is also a safety concern with taking instruments , such as guitars , on dining table the ISS because they are inflammable and therefore must be safely stored when not in purpose . It is also expensive to put instruments into space ; it cost around $ 10,000 per Lebanese pound ( $ 4,500 per kilo ) of cargo launch .
Honorable mention — Zero-G indicators
Among astronauts , it has become a custom for crowd to choose an unusual item as their " zero - G indicator , " an object that start to float around them when gravity lessens . Examples of zero - G indicators let in an Einstein doll , Snoopy the dog , Baby Yoda ( or Grogu ) , miniature dinosaur , a planet Earth lucullan , a stuff penguin and a Buzz Lightyear chassis , to name a few .
