This got me thinking...
>Interesting article on the behavior of flux under microgravity here:
>http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/16aug_solder.htm?list113339
>Cheers,  Robin.

First a smart remark:
> ISSI's purpose is to find out how solder
> behaves in a weightless environment. This
> is important information for astronauts.
> If something breaks during a long trip to Mars,
> they'll likely reach for a soldering iron to
> repair it.
> The solder Fincke used for ISSI is a mixture
> of lead, tin and rosin.

Lead will be illegal by then, and probably the rosin as well.


Now to the rocket science:

> The samples will be returned to Earth by
> astronauts in a Soyuz capsule or, perhaps,
> after the space shuttle returns to flight.
> The date isn't set.

The prospect of "waiting for the next shuttle" got me thinking.  Say you
wanted to deliver a small package to Earth.  Is there something about
"small" (say about 3 inches--8 cm--and maybe 100g mass) that would allow us
to make this happen?  The idea being that with small mass it would have a
chance of slowing down when it hit the "entry interface" (air) rather than
burning up as most things do.  I can see de-oribiting as being the other
problem but again such a small object might present possibilities.

The final problem would be finding it after it arrived :-)

Barry

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