They sent a phantom into space.

“Phantom” is a term of art that I hadn’t encountered before. A medical phantom is an emulation of the human body, a high-end test dummy. In this case, a legless human mannequin fitted with thousands of sensors to calculate the impact of cosmic radiation. Those and a collection of human bones suspended in the plastics and carbon fibre.

Turns out the radiation environment is slightly less harsh than believed. This is interesting. But, to me, it’s far less important than SPACE PHANTOM FILLED WITH HUMAN BONES FLYING AROUND IN ORBIT. That’s some proper Bleak Future imagery right there. Imagine if it’d been left in a stable distant orbit, or fired out of orbit entirely. One day, the last remaining human tissue in the universe would have been dead bones sunk deep in a legless test dummy called a phantom.

Sometimes, it’s like they write these news stories just for me.

 

 

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