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Friday 5 December 2008

Teds in space




Finally NotaSheep brings you a serious story. The Mail reports:
"It's not often that Britain can claim a win in the space race. But these teddy bears drifting nearly 20 miles above Earth have become the first soft toys to take part in extra-vehicular activity (to use correct NASA jargon) at such an altitude.

The soft toys MAT and KMS were named after the first initials of the pupils who helped make their space suits.

Along with their two intrepid colleagues, they were strapped to a beam attached to a foam-padded box containing instrumentation and cameras on Monday.

After rising to an altitude of around 100,000ft, a webcam caught their 'space-walk' for posterity before the helium balloon burst.

They then fell to Earth before a parachute opened automatically to provide a soft landing.

...

The teddy bears had to endure temperatures of -53C but had special spacesuits made by school children from the nearby Parkside and Coleridge community colleges. This stopped them from freezing solid on their epic trip.

Temperature sensors were stuck to the teddies' chests and connected to a laptop which allowed 'mission control' to measure the extremes of temperature they experienced. "


Ah bless...

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