Photo: NASA
At the time of writing, the Orion spaceship is at exactly 209,541 miles (337,224 km) from Earth, and at just 27,518 miles (44,286 km) from the Moon. That means, of course, the thing floats in the nothingness of open space, and the lack of gravity should be more than visible as it acts on the objects inside the spaceship.
How do we know that’s so? Because NASA placed inside the Orion a very sophisticated zero-gravity indicator. Well, not exactly sophisticated, as it’s just a doll that wasn’t tied down to anything, so it floats around the cabin freely.
You can see it do that in the short video attached below. The clip is shot from behind the seated Campos Moonikin astronaut dummy, and shows a perfect view of the Callisto communications system.
Snoopy, chosen by NASA as a zero-G indicator thanks to the history the character has with space exploration, can be seen floating in the distance, so to speak, in the bottom center of the image – that orange-suited blob of fluffiness.
Campos and Snoopy are not the only inanimate objects to hitch a ride on the Orion. In fact, the spaceship is packed with objects: pins, and programs and country flags, but also a 3D-printed goddess Artemis, and four LEGO minifigures.
A copy of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, a photo of Apollo members inside the Orion facility, tree and plant seeds, but also a lunar sample button from Apollo 11 are also on board.
Another doll, this time shaped like Shaun the Sheep, has been included in the cargo manifest as well. Its role on the mission was not detailed, but it probably acts like a zero-G indicator as well - after all, it trained for the job on an Airbus A310 zero-G aircraft prior to the Artemis I launch.
Like all the others we mentioned above, it is not visible in the images NASA released.
You can see it do that in the short video attached below. The clip is shot from behind the seated Campos Moonikin astronaut dummy, and shows a perfect view of the Callisto communications system.
Snoopy, chosen by NASA as a zero-G indicator thanks to the history the character has with space exploration, can be seen floating in the distance, so to speak, in the bottom center of the image – that orange-suited blob of fluffiness.
Campos and Snoopy are not the only inanimate objects to hitch a ride on the Orion. In fact, the spaceship is packed with objects: pins, and programs and country flags, but also a 3D-printed goddess Artemis, and four LEGO minifigures.
A copy of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, a photo of Apollo members inside the Orion facility, tree and plant seeds, but also a lunar sample button from Apollo 11 are also on board.
Another doll, this time shaped like Shaun the Sheep, has been included in the cargo manifest as well. Its role on the mission was not detailed, but it probably acts like a zero-G indicator as well - after all, it trained for the job on an Airbus A310 zero-G aircraft prior to the Artemis I launch.
Like all the others we mentioned above, it is not visible in the images NASA released.
.@Snoopy serves a very important purpose during the #Artemis I mission. He is our “zero-g” indicator — meaning that his floatation indicates microgravity levels aboard the @NASA_Orion spacecraft! pic.twitter.com/mhgG5c9hMM
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) November 21, 2022
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