In the pursuit of journeying to the stars mankind has shot some truly crazy stuff out into the cosmos in the name of science. Few of them are as follows:
1. Voyager Golden Record
The spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched a mere 16 days apart in 1977 and featured now the infamous Voyager golden records. The mission was to photograph and document our solar system but notable astronomer 'Carl Sagan' raised a valid point "What if the spacecraft encountered intelligent life along the way?", the golden records contained basic sonographic information including greetings spoken in 55 languages, a 90-minute selection of musical excerpts from around the globe, human brainwaves, the natural sounds of earth's animals, even images of mathematical definitions and DNA structure,etc.
The aim was to offer a brief yet accurate cross-section of human civilization for anyone or anything to decipher should they come across it President 'Jimmy Carter' and U.N. Secretary General 'Kurt Valdheim' also added printed messages to the package.
2. Music in space
Music in space is music played in or broadcasted from a spacecraft in outer space. The first ever song that was performed in space was a Ukrainian song “Watching the sky...” (“Дивлюсь я на небо”) sang on 12 August 1962 by Pavlo Popovych, cosmonaut from Ukraine at a special request of Serhiy Korolyov, Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer from Ukraine.
According to the Smithsonian Institution, the first musical instruments played in outer space were an 8-note Hohner "Little Lady" harmonica and a handful of small bells carried by American astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford aboard Gemini 6A.
3. LEGO
Everybody loves lego. NASA has had a long time partnership with lego since they introduced the space themed legos in 1978. A series totaling over 200 individual sets, it seems fitting then that the little plastic figurines get a chance to experience space for themselves. NASA's Juno Probe took off for Jupiter in 2011. It was effort to inspire a new generation of children to chase careers in Aerospace.
After all if lego characters can become astronauts then anyone can...
4. Buzz and Woody
There isn't a human being alive who hasn't seen toy story. It doesn't matter if you're a kid or an adult there's something for everyone in this much love story about Pals Buzz and Woody and their journey to find their way home. The STS-124 discovery mission took off in 2008 with mascot Buzz Lightyear on board in all he stayed in space for 450 days before coming back to earth with the rest of his crew, it was a dream come true for the plastic space man as he stayed aboard the international space station.
5. Pizza
In an insanely expensive and arguably uber successful publicity stunt Pizza Hut became the first fast food restaurant in history to send a delivery order into outer space in 2001. They agreed to a million dollar fee to have Russian space agency Ross Cosmos take a pizza pie into orbit to give cosmonaut Yuri Usuhoy a taste of home.
It was a basic recipe crispy crust topped with napoletina sauce and cheese pepperoni was excluded in favor of salami in order to enhance the pizza's flavor in zero gravity extra salt and spices were used to combat the phenomenon of taste.
6. Animals
In the 1950s animal rights were next to non-existent as a result a whole bunch of different animals were launched into space. In an attempt to study how living physiology is changed by the rigor of intense g-force and the weightlessness of outer space. 'Laika' the dog was the first to be sent out by the Soviets and in the span of just a few weeks in 1957 went from lovable streetcar of Moscow to the pilot of Sputnik 2.
7. Car
Whether you think Elon Musk is a visionary of the future or merely an over-eccentric centi billionaire there's no denying that the man pulls some pretty hilarious publicity stunts back in 2018. His company SpaceX did a little bit of cross-promotion when they sent a Tesla Roadster into orbit piloted by a brave hero and space suit-clad mannequin named Starman it was a strangely appropriate way to christen and commemorate the maiden voyage of the Falcon heavy rocket that will someday be used to ferry mankind to mars both the launch and Starman's helmet cam, were streamed live on the internet and although it's impossible to hear in the void of space the cars stereo was blasting David Bowie's hit track life on Mars on repeat 24/7.
Starman is currently cruising around in a solar orbit will eventually cross into Mars orbit before crash landing on Venus in 10 million years time.
