![Zero gravity training.]()
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Zero gravity training.
Let’s finish this ranking list with the most absurd space program known to mankind.
Kenneth Kaumba, President of Zambia, wanted to show that his country could join the space race. He and local businessman
Edwar Makuka Nkolso got inspired to rule space even without having the financial capacities of the US or the USSR (nor the humanitarian help of the UN).
Their plan included the launch of an aluminum rocket with something like a catapult which would travel the distance to Mars with 10 Zambians, a girl and a cat on board (the girl and the cat were important). The candidate spacemen trained for zero gravity with petrol barrels in which they went inside and rolled down a hill. The alternate study program would involve swings, which the future Martians would use to, well, swing, and the scientists from the National Academy of Science, Space Study and Philosophy would cut the rope when the swing would reach its peak.
We have to admit that Nkolso’s rocket designs weren’t too tragic, which encouraged the President to plan the launch on Independence Day in 1964. Alas, the employees of the Academy – whom the people couldn’t tell apart from crazy cult members – couldn’t prepare on time and the “space girl” got pregnant (such devotion!). So in the same year, the Nkoloso’s Academy ceased existing and he decided to spend the nation’s money by becoming a politician.
Have we missed some striking space project? Or did you find that some of the ideas here weren’t all that crazy and they shouldn’t be mocked? In all cases, progress has to be accompanied by some absurdities – after all if we do not overstep the boundaries of our imagination, how could we think of something new?
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