JMH
Emeritus, Contributor
- Apr 2, 2012
- 7,197
Astronaut Don Pettit has a knack for making life on the space station seem like more fun than you can ever have on Earth. And recently he used the station's Lego collection for some entertaining makeshift experiments with static electricity.
Using nothing more than the colorful bricks and some high-tech looking tinfoil scavenged from the station, Pettit built a functional Van der Graaf generator capable of generating an impressive 30,000 volts. Of course, that's not enough current to cause any serious damage, but it's certainly more than enough to shock and annoy his fellow orbital passengers. [YouTube]
http://gizmodo.com/5918431/astronau...can-generate-electricity-in-space-using-legos