Useless Knowledge about Space: Amazing facts about space - from astronauts to black holes

By Mia Mirillia

Did you know that...

... it rains diamonds on Jupiter?
...NASA hands out peanuts to all employees before every rocket launch?
...Russian astronauts pee on their car before every launch?

These and 300 other curious facts about our universe await you in this book.

300 facts about astronauts, the sun, moon and planets

Space is incredible. It is huge, full of mysteries and incredible curiosities. You will find 300 of the most amazing of them in this book. Be the smart aleck in the group or the know-it-all in the playground.

Always be the smart aleck in the group

Now you can finally be the know-it-all who has a suitable fact to hand in every situation. With a vast collection of useful and useless knowledge, you can deeply impress those around you. You will be able to explain...
...why astronauts always take pistols on board,
...why coffee on the ISS contains urine,
...why it would not be a good idea to try to land on Saturn.

An ideal gift for young and old

Make your child the smartest person in their school class.
Or impress your colleagues, friends and family with outstandingly fantastic details about our universe that few people know - and even fewer ever wanted to know.
300 curious facts - also ideal as a board game or entertaining book for your next reading group.

Click on "Buy now" and give yourself or a loved one a huge treat.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marcus Jungnickel
• Release date: Nov 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9791222471914

Book preview

Contents

Astronauts and space travel

In 1969, 600 million people watched astronaut Buzz Aldrin stand on the moon. When he stood motionless for a moment, the viewers didn't know that he was peeing in his suit.

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The third man's first word on the moon was Oops!

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NASA has a tradition of Lucky Peanuts: peanuts are handed out when a rocket is launched. The reason for this is that the first 6 launches of the unmanned rocket tests from the 1960s failed and shortly before the seventh launch, which then succeeded, an employee handed out peanuts to all his colleagues.

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Certain foods, such as beans, are not allowed to be eaten by astronauts on missions. The suits are not designed to withstand flatulence.

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Astronauts are particularly susceptible to muscle and bone loss due to the low gravity in space. They therefore have to do regular exercises to maintain their physical fitness.

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Russian astronauts always take pistols on board in case they have to make an emergency landing in the wilderness and have to defend themselves against wild animals.

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The famous countdown before the launch of a rocket does not come from NASA, but from the movies. It was invented by director Fritz Lang in his 1929 silent film Woman in the Moon. To this day, there is no countdown at all for Russian rocket launches.

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The first manned flight to the moon was the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, during which Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin took the first step on the moon.

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There is a spaceship graveyard in the Pacific Ocean. This is where all unmanned spaceships are directed when they are too large to burn up completely when they enter the Earth's atmosphere.

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The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest artificial object in space and is about the size of a soccer pitch. It was launched in 1998 and has been continuously manned ever since.

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The first private individual to travel into space was billionaire Dennis Tito in 2001, who paid 20 million US dollars for a rocket trip to the ISS.

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A spacesuit costs 8.5 million euros.

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The ISS cannot always be