Skip to main content

This is what happens when you push a GoPro into a floating water blob – in space

GoPro cameras are getting everywhere these days. Quadcoptersstraps, flexible suction cups and other such accessories mean the only thing between you and some stunning GoPro-shot footage is your imagination.

The latest say-what? footage to hit the Web is the work of three ISS astronauts – the European Space Agency’s Alexander Gerst and NASA’s Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman – who had the idea of putting a GoPro inside a water bubble, apparently as part of an experiment “exploring water surface tension in microgravity” (well, they had to offer some kind of reason for having a bit of fun with a GoPro and a liquid blob).

Shot back in the summer but only just released, the video, complete with its easy-listening soundtrack, shows the astronauts carefully inserting the GoPro into the floating sphere of water.

Once inside, we’re treated to snippets of footage reminiscent of those ‘dream sequence’ shots in old movies involving wavy dissolves.

As the momentous and historic experiment comes to an end, there’s a moment of nail-biting drama as Wiseman attempts to extract the GoPro from the liquid sphere, but we’re happy to report that it all ends well.

And if you have a pair of 3D glasses hanging around (course you do), you can watch the entire sequence in 3D, too (below).

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Starliner spacecraft just took a major step toward first crewed flight
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft being stacked on the Atlas V rocket.

A crane lifts the Starliner spacecraft to the top of an Atlas V rocket. Boeing Space

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft has been stacked atop the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket ahead of its first crewed flight next month.

Read more
NASA needs a new approach for its challenging Mars Sample Return mission
An illustration of NASA's Sample Return Lander shows it tossing a rocket in the air like a toy from the surface of Mars.

NASA has shared an update on its beleaguered Mars Sample Return mission, admitting that its previous plan was too ambitious and announcing that it will now be looking for new ideas to make the mission happen. The idea is to send a mission to collect samples from the surface of Mars and return them to Earth for study. It's been a long-term goal of planetary science researchers, but one that is proving costly and difficult to put into practice.

The Perseverance rover has already collected and sealed a number of samples of Mars rock as it journeys around the Jezero Crater, and has left these samples in a sample cache ready to be collected.  However, getting them back to Earth in the previous plan required sending a vehicle to Mars, getting it to land on the surface, sending out another rover to collect the samples and bring them back, launching a rocket from the planet's surface (something which has never been done before), and then having this rocket rendezvous with another spacecraft to carry them back to Earth. That level of complexity was just too much to be feasible within a reasonable budget, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced this week.

Read more
Final communications sent to the beloved Ingenuity Mars helicopter
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Earlier this year, the beloved Mars helicopter Ingenuity ended its mission after an incredible 72 flights. Originally designed as a technology test intended to perform just five flights, NASA's helicopter was the first rotorcraft to fly on another planet and was such a success that it has already inspired plans for more exploration of distant planets using rotorcraft. Its mission came to an end, however, when it damaged one of its rotors, leaving it unable to safely fly.

Even then, the helicopter was still able to communicate by sending signals to the nearby Perseverance rover, which acted as its base station. Now, though, Perseverance is traveling away from the helicopter to continue its exploration of Mars. So this week, the NASA team on the ground met for the last time to communicate with Ingenuity, bringing the mission to a final close.

Read more