The 9 Strangest NASA Research Experiments: Crash Test Corpses, Drinkable Urine, Spiders On Drugs And More

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed in 1958 as the United States intensified its efforts in the space race against the Soviet Union. Since then, NASA's research has broadened to encompass everything from "space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research".

On July 8, the space shuttle Atlantis, carrying four crew members (Rex Walheim, Sandy Magnus, pilot Doug Hurley and commander Chris Ferguson) and an assortment of supplies and spare parts, embarked on its final 12-day mission to the International Space Station. Despite it being NASA's last shuttle launch, the agency will continue research on other facets of science.

Home to some of the world's brightest minds, NASA researchers are credited with inventing some of the strangest high-tech products, many of them unrelated to space research. For example, NASA's engineers have helped Michael Phelps win gold medals, have developed unique fragrances for the perfume industry and have even observed the effects of drugs on spiders.

Browse through the agency's oddest experiments (below), and vote for the ones you find strangest. Do you know of stranger experiments conducted by NASA? Leave your tips in the comments.

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Spiders On Drugs

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In 1995, NASA's Dr. David Noever replicated a landmark experiment by P. N. Witt, which examined the effect of various psychotropic drugs on spiders. Results determined that the more toxic the drug, the less organized the spider's web was.

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In 1995, NASA's Dr. David Noever replicated a landmark experiment by P. N. Witt, which examined the effect of various psychotropic drugs on spiders. Results determined that the more toxic the drug, the less organized the spider's web was.

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Comments

[crayola 08b]

02:00 PM on 07/13/2011

i can haz urine?

[Ramkshrestha]

07:29 AM on 07/13/2011

Space is another world due to different Gravitational force and lots of strange things happen there.

[nightprowler]

06:33 AM on 07/13/2011

Chicken Fat Jet Fuel....how many chickens does it take to oh never mind ....

[DaniFoxy]

08:32 AM on 07/13/2011

I wonder if the skies smell like KFC when a jet passes by?

[Adam Story]

02:32 PM on 07/12/2011

Is Bear Grills one of the Atlantis five? If not he should be an advisor, being the worlds formost expert on drinking urine and all.

[Tanrioldu]

12:49 AM on 07/13/2011

I saw the words "drinking urine" in the headline and I immediately knee there would be a Bear Grylls comment. Lol

[tumbler snapper]

01:13 PM on 07/13/2011

Urine stills do work. But it does not, in general, produce enough water to sustain for long.

[markIDGCONNECT]

10:36 AM on 07/12/2011

Looks like caffeine doesn't exactly help concentration for arachnids!

Mark at http://www.idgconnect.com/blog

[ArchanaS]

01:37 AM on 07/12/2011

Indeed a list of very strange experiments.

[ramblingjohnny]

10:01 PM on 07/11/2011

Extra geek point for using the word stillsuit!

[Henry Owen Creque V]

08:03 PM on 07/11/2011

the purpose of the spider was.......

[Carbon Forteetoo]

08:57 PM on 07/11/2011

lulz.

[ThinkCreeps]

05:23 AM on 07/12/2011

Space station science is exceedingly slim pickings.

An accompanying article on NASA's most successful experiments - even of the last five years - could be a TV miniseries.

[Tazirai]

06:45 PM on 07/11/2011

Nasa will change.. I just hope it doesn't take 50 years. The experiments and the discoveries are too important.

[t-bone53]

06:20 PM on 07/11/2011

Follow-up to previous post...
TSS-1 failed when a bolt supporting the cable reel was changed for a longer one, ostensibly for better mechanical integrity. That longer bolt jammed the reel mechanism. TSSR-1, the reflight of Tether, proved to be an astonishing success, albeit a publicly perceived failure. The tether snapped toward the end of its reel-out because a metal particle caused a high voltage discharge that snapped the tether. This was because the electrical potential being developed was far in excess of the theory, and the currents being produced before the tether snapped were far in excess of the predictions. The Tether became a free-flying satellite, lasting in orbit for a couple of weeks. I had the privilege of watching it pass over my house one morning just before sunrise. It was an amazing sight. The satellite continued to send measurements of the near-earth plasma environment for the duration of its orbits, until TSSR-1 re-entered the atmosphere. The news reports were all aflame over the "failure" of the Tether reflight mission. That is untrue. What is true is that NASA reacted to the negative press by never considering follow-on missions related to Tether. This negative press killed a lot of other science missions when NASA's timidity was piqued by bad, or terribly superficial reporting.

[emerson7]

02:42 PM on 07/12/2011

you, sir, should post more often....i, for one would read it.

[DaniFoxy]

08:30 AM on 07/13/2011

I was just about to say that... kidding. You obviously know your stuff.

[t-bone53]

06:20 PM on 07/11/2011

It is astonishing how ignorant the general public is about science and technology. That is not helped by reportage that reveals that ignorance and shallowness among those who are supposed to be enlightening that public. The blurb on Tether (7-10) is a case in point. The mission of Tether was to measure the phenomenon of electrical potential as a function of differential orbital altitudes. It was also designed to explore orbital mechanics between two bodies on-orbit at an altitude differential.

[Artos]

11:20 AM on 07/13/2011

The second part of that I could barely understand, but even so it seems we already should have understood that concept by now given that we used it time and time again with various missions such as Gemini/ Agena, Apollo/ Lunar lander and numerous ISS/ Shuttle missions just to name a few. The other thing I understood the purpose of, not at all. What is Electrical potential as a function of differential orbits supposed to accomplish for us?

[Brothaman2k]

06:10 PM on 07/11/2011

"What? No, I've never worn a Stillsuit before, it just seemed the right way to wear it? My name? Kevin. Kevin Kwisatz-Haderach. Why?"

[ramblingjohnny]

01:11 AM on 07/12/2011

You should go easy on the spice apparently it give delusion of grandeur. lolll Beside knowing everything that will ever happen to you can be so boring.

[LMPE]

05:13 PM on 07/11/2011

And most importantly, an astronaut who found a hot genie.

[nelly55]

03:41 PM on 07/11/2011

NASA came originally from NACA

and the first "A" in both stand for Aeronautics. The author needs to do better research.

[Cooper Smith]

04:12 PM on 07/11/2011

Thanks for the comment nelly55. I thought the first sentence of the article made it clear what exactly NASA stands for.

[craftycrow]

03:26 PM on 07/11/2011

I think NASA's best experiment was seeing if it could be a worthwhile govt agency for 50 yrs....too bad it failed.

[Vic Tor]

07:01 PM on 07/11/2011

HA! Love it.