The team here at Mitten Space labs took last weekend off to celebrate Christmas, but this weekend we’re back with more rockets and airplanes.
Habitat Construction
In preparation for our future on another planet Captain Obvious and Space Cadet begin construction on various habitat models to test their long term viability.
Space Cadet agrees that Red Vines make excellent structural supports, whereas Captain Obvious feels that you can never have enough multi-purpose adhesive.
The next test will be to verify how long the various construction techniques last in the harsh environment of the kitchen. Our guess is less than a week.
Brush-Bots
Today’s project comes from a BrushBot kit I picked up at the Detroit Maker Faire a few years ago, long before Space Cadet was even born.
The kit itself is fairly simple:
- A few cheap toothbrushes
- Some batteries
- Some cell phone vibration motors
- Some HORRIBLE sticky tape
Captian Obvious was completely excited to build his robot meanwhile Space Cadet couldn’t quite understand why the sticky tape stopped working after pulling it off and throwing it down on the basement floor. Maybe one of our future experiments will be all about adhesives.
Communications Testing
Today’s experiment revolved around testing some primitive communication devices.
- 2 Solo Cups
- A length of string
- A nail (to poke a hole in the bottom of the cups)
Captain Obvious made sure that the first conversation on our new highly expensive piece of equipment was in fact about farts.
Rocket Ship Model
Yesterday was Space Cadet‘s third birthday. His favorite gift so far has been these Magformers. This morning he insisted that we build a rocketship.
Propulsion Experiment 1
Since Captain Obvious has a never ending supply of hot air, today’s experiment involved stringing a line across the basement (this is winter in Michigan after all) and seeing how well we could propel makeshift rockets across the room.
Space Cadet on the other hand decided to show up dressed as a dinosaur.
We Are Building A Space Agency
I’m determined to give those NASA nerds a run for their money, why do those guys get to have all the fun?
It is day three of Thanksgiving break and Captain Obvious and Space Cadet need to get out of the house for a while. I explain to Captain Obvious that one of the primary missions of any space agency is Earth sciences, and that a lot of Earth based science is actually done by balloon not by rockets (much to his immediate disappointment).
It is obvious from today’s experiment that I was not thinking as far ahead as I could have. For one thing I learned that the local party store will not sell me a canister of helium, instead for $6.30 they’ll fill up six balloons for me to stuff into the car. Live and learn.
Much fun was had experimenting with drag and lift and afterwards when I asked Space Cadet what the weather observations where his reply was Not Cold.