俄罗斯宇航员Mikhail Tyurin尴尬地支撑了他的笨蛋space suitagainst the exterior of the International Space Station. While a colleague steadied his feet, Tyurin used a golf club strapped to the outside of his space suit and took a swing at a golf ball suspended in a mesh met. "All right. There it goes," announced Tyurin to ground controllers [source:Goddard]。从视图中消失的小球加速到声音速度的四倍以上。元素21是为特技付款的加拿大高尔夫制造商，很高兴。
According toNASAestimates, Tyurin's ball spun around the earth for three days -- traveling for hundreds of thousands of miles until it burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. Hailing from a small city in the western part of the Soviet Union, Tyurin had never strapped on a pair of golf shoes in his life. But 220 miles (354 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean, he effortlessly pulled off history's longest golf stroke.
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Tyurin并不是唯一一个使用太空计划来获得高尔夫比赛的高尔夫球手。在1990年代中期，这家总部位于田纳西州的威尔逊体育用品公司使用NASA技术制作了一系列高科技高尔夫球，旨在比以往任何时候都更远。钥匙是在酒窝中 - 小火山口安排在高尔夫球的外观上。自20世纪初以来，酒窝就一直在高尔夫球上出现，但制造商永远不确定哪种凹痕是为最好的球制作的。在实验室中，他们只需尝试多种不同的尺寸和酒窝配置，直到他们定居于最远的任何设计上。
Wilson teamed up with NASA to crunch the numbers of what makes the perfect dimple pattern. Using technology that had originally tested the space shuttle's orange external fuel tank, engineers put together a computer model showing the exact aerodynamics of a ball. Armed with the new knowledge, Wilson designers set about crafting a mathematically perfect golf ball.
结果是Wilson Ultra 500，它占据了小，中和大的酒窝，并将其排列成精确的金字塔，以确保在整个球表面上保持光滑的气流。Wilson称，Ultra 500是“最对称的球表面，其初始速度更长，并产生最稳定的球飞行，以实现无与伦比的准确性和距离。”直到今天，佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心的礼品店通常手头上有几盒威尔逊的太空高尔夫球。
If NASA can make golf balls go further, can they make your golf shoes smell better? Read on to find out how.
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