The 5 most useless items in the history to perform a spacewalk

What strange things the astronauts sometimes take with them into orbit, written many articles. They all boil down to "utility", or at least the justification of the presence of products or household items and hygiene in space. Take, for example, cognac, discovered by Georgi Grechko at the station "Salyut-6": "tough guy" saved the astronauts from the cold and frostbite. Or seeds of wheat, radish, lettuce, cabbage — growing cultures in orbit, the astronauts conducted successful experiments and helping science. About soft toys that perform in space the role of indicators of weightlessness, also told more than once.

But there were times when the astronauts took into space was a "non-space" thing. Let us examine five of the strangest, and read to the end, and you will receive a bonus.

Guns

With Yury Gagarin began not only space exploration but also the history of the "space guns". In the first flight of Gagarin took with him a PM — he's a pistol. "Trunk" was to be useful in the case that Soviet cosmonaut upon landing "will not fall there." Later, it turned out — Alexei Leonov recalled that when landing in 1965 spent with a buddy two days in the woods of the Perm region. "From the PM could shoot," joked Leon. It became clear — no useful functions of PM are not talking.

Then, Soviet designers have decided to abandon the idea to include in the equipment of the cosmonaut Makarov. However, an alternative was invented much later — only in 1979 the same Leonov in the Tula arms plant was proposed to create a special weapon that would help the astronaut during the crash, "not in that steppe". The creation took years, and by 1982, the ninth came the famous triple barrel TP-82. It, for a moment, ceased to use quite recently — in 2006. Now take a weapon into orbit the Russian cosmonauts are a big secret. Roscosmos, at least, did not comment.

The Sword Of Luke Skywalker

Continuing the theme of weapons we must mention the personal request of George Lucas in which he appealed to the American astronauts in 2007. The Director asked the members of the expedition STS-120 to bring into the orbit of light the sword that wielded the character Luke Skywalker in the episode "return of the Jedi". The request was humorous, however, the astronauts responded with joy and taken aboard the famous sword. Space Odyssey props became symbolic because it was in 2007 Star wars celebrated its 30th birthday.

Erotic pictures

We have already talked about sex in space (or rather, about the reasons for his absence there), but no mention of the very first erotic episode, which was widely discussed in the American press of the early 70-ies of the last century. Talking about the flight of "Apollo 12" on the moon in November 1969. Joke with your colleagues from the first team pulled the astronauts from the backup. When I first landed on the moon, then the user opened a special book-guide. Imagine their surprise when instead of the instructions they saw a black and white feminine charms with the signatures a La "study activity", "carefully describe the bulge" and so on.

The Holy relics

In October 2016 the members of the expedition "Soyuz MS-02", launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, took on Board the relics of Seraphim of Sarov. This is one of the last known scenes, the astronauts took with them something like that. Earlier (2008 and 2009) visited the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh. In 2009, the orbit went the piece of the true cross.

The public to this day argues, is there any practical benefit from such "aid." Because of this controversy the Holy relics and were included in our selection. But let's not forget that the Russian cosmonauts most of them are believers and often personal ways to equip the parts on the ISS icons.

A fishing kit

Interestingly, in the so-called "survival kit Russian cosmonaut" to this day is set for fishing. The characters themselves joke that is not averse to land somewhere closer to the pond, to a day or two to go fishing with friends. But seriously, fishing tackle is needed in the set to the same as a Makarov pistol at the time, to not landed there, the astronaut could survive in the wild. About when a fishing rod or net for catching fish was useful to the Russian cosmonauts to land on the Earth is unknown. And because the fishing kit is in our collection a place of honor.

Bonus

And now a few words about what was in space, but with the help of drones. First, Swiss cheese. In 2010, the first commercial spacecraft Dragon circled the Earth twice. On Board were capsule with the inscription "top secret". When after landing, the capsule was opened, it turned out that there lies a whole block of cheese.

Bonus number two will be the story about the dust in space. Seriously — the company Celestis Memorial Spaceflights for more than 20 years experience sending human ashes into the Universe. One of the first services "pragofarma" used by relatives of Gene Roddenberry — the Creator of "star trek" (Star Trek).