Last November, through a partnership with a commercial payload provider, we launched three Quackstrong Astronaut Bushface Ducks into low Earth orbit to test surface-tension hydrodynamics in microgravity.
+---------------------------------------------------+
| MICROGRAVITY FLOTATION DIAGRAM |
| |
| . * . ____ . * |
| * . / \ * . |
| . Water | O O | * . |
| Sphere | [LEAF] | . |
| * . \______/ . * |
| . | * |
| * . v * |
| (Floats inside |
| Water Globe) |
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In zero gravity, water does not stay in a tub; it forms floating, oscillating spheres. When Astronaut Bushface was introduced into a 500 milliliter sphere of water onboard the station, an extraordinary physical phenomenon occurred:
- The dense, hydrophobic properties of the facial foliage caused the water sphere to envelope the body while completely auto-rejecting from the leaf cluster.
- The duck's cartoon eyes remained completely clear of water, peering out from the center of a perfectly clear liquid orb.
- The duck naturally centered itself within the sphere, creating a self-stabilizing orbital bath toy.
The astronauts reported that watching the leafy duck rotate serenely inside a floating globe of water was “hypnotic, deeply soothing, and slightly surreal.” We are currently petitioning NASA to make the Quackstrong standard issue for all long-duration deep-space missions to boost crew morale.