PAINTING in zero gravity sounds messy, but now astronauts have the chance to give it a try.
The Kibo laboratory blasted off on the space shuttle Endeavour on Tuesday to deliver the first art facilities to the International Space Station, along with more conventional biomedical and physics experiments. It will be the station鈥檚 biggest laboratory.
鈥淚t is well known that a microgravity environment produces innovative results in scientific experiments and research, but it is now also viewed as a world where creativity can be inspired,鈥� announced the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency on its website.
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鈥淪pace is now viewed as a world where creativity can be inspired鈥�
The facilities are part of JAXA鈥檚 plans to involve the public in space projects: in the build-up to launch, it called for ideas on how to use the space studio creatively. Ideas so far include painting patterns with drops of ink and forming interesting shapes with globules of water. The agency has also invited the public to write poetry about space, which will be sent up to Kibo to be archived.
