If you watch Nasa TV alot you may have seen some video of toy physics being done on Shuttle flights back in the early to mid 90s. Astronauts play and look at Earth in their free time. Why no bouncing balls? This is one of the must haves I'd take with me, along with a hefty blob of Silly Putty and magnets. Why do you think this is?

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
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magnets, silly putty, and bouncing balls on the shuttle?
i think stuff could go horribly bad in a very short time if that stuff is flying around the cabin hitting stuff and getting caught in vital switches and what not.

Actually, I remember them playing with magnets at one time, doing a demonstration of how the Earth's magnetic fields reach all the way out to the ISS, and how the magnets would align themselves to the field in a minute or two.

I don't think it is such a big deal to have loose bits floating about. That is apparently the norm, cookie crumbs etc. As for switches the best one I have heard concerns the master ignition switch for the Eagle LEM launch system. Armstrong accidentally broke it off flush with his elbow a couple of minutes before the launch window returning from Lunar surface. After a few tense seconds he figured out that he could toggle it with the tip of his million dollar space pen that writes upside down. Money well spent, don'cha think?

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When I am done here I think I will go create something from metal.

Aldrin's Flair pen was cheaper and apparently actually did the job. See Question on Snopes in the Lunar Conspiracies forum.

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Well maybe no Silly Putty but I still don't get the lack of bouncing balls. Maybe they don't want to get conked on the head by one. As for cookie crumbs, astronauts don't eat food that can make crumbs. They don't eat sandwich bread, only tortillas because of not wanting floating crumbs getting in electronics and the hazard of breathing them in.

__________________
If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.-Enoch Root, The Confusion
When I was a kid, if someone brandished a shrink gun he'd get a little bit of respect!-Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman