sandr034

My involvement with Stargazer Lottie , and the fact that she's gone to space with Tim Peake , has made me really curious about other toys which have flown to space. It's amazing what you can find with a bit of digging on Wikipedia and beyond... In 1985 there was a Space Shuttle Mission ( STS-51-D ) which among many other things, flew an experiment called " Toys in Space ". The idea was to create an accessible way for children to learn about microgravity, by comparing how the toys acted in space, to how they would behave in their own classroom. According to the NASA Website about Toys in Space , this experiment was repeated on the shuttle in 1993 and 1998 (on STS-54 and STS-77 respectively), while in 2002, Expedition 5 to the International Space Station, also took back some of the same toys. There are a series of videos available showing the toys being used in space, which you can watch below. The toys included commonly available toys, such as a spinning top, yo-yo, ...

One thing I’ve spent a little bit of time on over the last few years is consulting on the development of Stargazer Lottie . I first heard about her when Lucie Follett from Arklu contacted me in August 2013 to discuss their plans to develop a stargazer doll. I’ve talked with the developers on and off ever since, providing suggestions on the clothing Lottie wears to go Stargazing (making sure she was wrapped up warm), and what kind of telescope she might be able to have (her telescope looks a bit like a Galileoscope , which is an inexpensive, but optically accurate telescope developed by astronomers). I also helped with some of the information on the box (making sure the planets were in the right order), and checked over the handout which comes with Lottie about women in astronomy. I also suggested the company contact UNAWE for links to kids activities (which did work out!).  I’ve been delighted by the reaction to Lottie Stargazer, since she was released back in March 2015 and my ...