New Hi Tech To Arrive At ISS - iPads and an Angry Bird
IMAGE BY NASA/Apple/Rovio/collectSPACE.com
To work on the ISS is to be at the cutting edge of space exploration, to experience the rigours of space on a daily basis, and to test the changed conditions and their impact on the methods of science. So, naturally, they need the best we earth-dwellers can offer. And so it was that we decided to send them them two iPads and a stuffed Angry Bird doll. Godspeed.
This cache of resources is going up in two waves - the iPads fly with the next unmanned Progress resupply shuttle this month, while Sir Bird makes his trek in November.
The iPads, a NASA spokesperson assured journalists, would "be used for entertainment purposes only." They are joined on their flight by such lesser resources like water, oxygen, and large quantities of equipment to be used by the crew.
The doll, on the other hand, performs an actual function in flight. According to Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, the doll acts as a real-time physical indicator of the progress of their voyage.
"This indicator we start on Earth, hung on a string, just behind the door between the landing module and living compartment," he said in a press conference.
"At a time when [we] start weightlessness, about 10 minutes after launch, it will begin to float. So we understand that the start of our flight was a success and we are already in space."
But why an Angry Bird? As it turns out, Shkaplerov allowed his daughter to pick it.
In any case, we all know exactly what the crew on the ISS will be doing with their iPads once they get them, don't we.
[Space]