back to article ZERO-G DINOSAUR made from bits and bobs by space station flight engineer

An astronaut and expert robotics engineer serving aboard the International Space Station has built a dinosaur from odds and ends salvaged from around the orbiting outpost. What an expert NASA roboticist is capable of 'Naut Karen Nyberg, who currently holds the job of flight engineer on the station, is an expert roboticist …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Beware of reapers ...

    The last space-faring toy dinosaur owner of my experience ended badly whilst claiming to be 'a leaf on the wind'. A cautionary tale ...

    1. Moof
      Alien

      Re: Beware of reapers ...

      I think you mean reavers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaver_(Firefly)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Beware of reapers ...

        Indeed I do.

        I've clearly been playing too much Mass Effect recently and it's addled and confused my brain!

        1. Adrian Jones

          Re: Beware of reapers ...

          Curse its sudden but inevitable betrayal!

    2. JonP
      Headmaster

      Re: Beware of reapers ...

      Reavers!

    3. Euripides Pants

      Re: Beware of reapers ...

      Don't fear the Reaper

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYABA0saFw

      1. vonRat
        Coat

        Re: Beware of reapers ...

        That song needs more cowbell...

        http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/628756/

    4. Kane
      Joke

      I swear by my pretty floral bonnet...

      ...I will end you

  2. Trollslayer
    Joke

    I for one

    Welcome our dinosaur overlords!

    1. VinceH

      Re: I for one

      "Welcome our dinosaur overlords!"

      ...from SPAAAAAAAAAACE!

  3. fearnothing

    That is one hell of a lucky kid. I wish my mum had been an astronaut and had made a toy in space for me. BEST MUM EVER.

    1. Euripides Pants

      Re: BEST MUM EVER

      Yeah, the rest of us have to take our kids to Yellowstone. They're bored until they realize that their parents took them camping inside a giant volcano.

    2. Yag
      Thumb Up

      Indeed... She's awesome!

      Smart, caring mother, geeky... and pretty on top of that. Wow.

      She really deserve to takes the place of those vapid retards that pass for "role models" for young girls around the world.

      Unfortunately, i'm afraid it won't happens.

  4. NoOnions
    Alien

    Next project...

    ...just has to be a pig...

    1. Steve the Cynic

      Re: Next project...

      "...just has to be a pig..."

      *TWO* pigs (more at your discretion), because it has to be *Pigs*, not *Pig*.

      1. NoOnions
        Thumb Up

        Re: Next project...

        Fair point, well made! ;-)

        1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
          Coat

          Re: Next project...

          Sounds like a job for dr. Bunsen Honeydew

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Used space-faring female T-shirt scraps...

    *breathes in deeply*

    Ohhhhhhhhhhh...

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Used space-faring female T-shirt scraps...

      So what you're saying is, it's not so much dinosaur as dino-phwoarrrr...

      [note to self: Learn from the example of the above commentard, and remember to post anonymously to preserve remaining shreds of reputation.]

  6. Graham O'Brien

    How much import tax

    will she have to pay on it as it's made from a mixture of US and non-US materials and wasn't assembled in the USA? And will NASA levy delivery charges? Could be a bit expensive. Brilliant present though

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Finally the ISS has generated a useful product!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it me, or do those eyes look remarkably like space suit material, and about the same size as the holes which mysteriously appeared in that drowning blokes space suit?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    She made her son a T-Rex IN SPACE?!

    And out of genuine spacegoing materials too?!

    Is it possible to vote her for Queen of Mums? Or a 'Nobe Prize for Parenting'?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not got much to do up there have they...

  11. Alister

    crafted from Russian food podules

    Yay!

    You managed to get the word "PODULES" into a headline!

    :-)

  12. Fatman

    Thank $DEITY that dinosaur wasn't purple!!!

    1. Benchops
      Coat

      purple dinosaur

      Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination

      He's made from all the bits that fall

      out from my mum's space station.

      I never watched it. honest.

  13. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    She didn't make it...

    ... it's just Bob the Dinosaur who's been hiding behind the furniture!

  14. Uncle Siggy

    Stitch in time...

    Perhaps we can get this space faring seamstress to knit a new ISS module to replace replace the OPSEK project the Russians are proposing.

  15. Charybdis

    Karen Nyberg is a Whovian

    ..."It's a DINOSAUR on a SPACESHIP".....

    And that is just so ridiculously cool... like a fez... or a Stetson.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm an old cynic

    and given the times we live in, I venture a guess: it was all carefully staged by NASA PR-subcontractor partners to provide a "human touch". You know, like a painting of a squashed fly on a spotless German during a car show, by a perfect Germanic hostess, just because she thought it would be "nice": Germans have a sense of humour too, ja, it was my own idea.

    I hope I'm wrong here and the dino was spontaneous...

    1. cray74

      Re: I'm an old cynic

      Astronauts get some downtime on the station. This astronaut, Karen Nyberg, is noted as enjoying sewing as a hobby (see her wiki entry). The dino is made of materials sourced in situ: food pack liners and T-shirt scraps. While I could see NASA playing up the PR aspect after she made the dinosaur, I don't think the actual sewing of the dinosaur was staged - it fits Mrs. Nyberg's hobby, available resources, and family situation.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thats one small handicraft for Womankind one giant present for a kid.

    That's it!

    if some dad up there does not build a Zero-G Scalextric or fashion a catapult from space station offcuts I'm getting a sex change.

    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Thats one small handicraft for Womankind one giant present for a kid.

      catapult from space station

      Er, Houston, we have a problem!

  18. brainwrong
    Thumb Up

    Materials

    Did she take any bits off of Luca Parmitano's spacesuit?

  19. Tikimon
    Happy

    Modern scrimshaw variant!

    Ivory's hard to come by and very non-PC these days. Bored sailors gotta fill the off-watches with something, eh?

    And it's SOOO CUTE!

  20. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Coat

    Job of flight engineer

    Nice job! (both her job and with the dinosaur)

    But why does the ISS need a flight engineer? Thought they were in free fall...

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