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I don't recall having heard of these until now:
http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … 70405.html
the bowling ball-sized objects are designed to test control algorithms for spacecraft by carrying out a series of unmanned rendezvous and docking maneuvers.
They look smaller than bowling-ball sized.
The knobby protrusions in their profile are tanks of pressurized carbon dioxide [schematic], which the satellites use for propulsion within the ISS.
Cool.
A member of the three-astronaut Expedition 14 crew snapped this view of the SPHERES satellites in action during a March 24, 2007 test.
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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