The future of space sports

updated 4:18 p.m. ET April 25, 2008

Astronauts, by necessity, work hard in space. But during their precious time off aboard the international space station, some spaceflyers are picking their brains to come up with the future of space sports.

"Sometimes, you just develop them by happenstance," said NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who is living aboard the space station as an Expedition 17 flight engineer.

The mundane task of filling large water bags took on a whole new meaning, he said last week in a televised interview.

"We started tossing them kind of like a medicine ball, and we realized that you could toss and catch and then go for a ride on this big thing as it takes you away," Reisman said. "So there's all kinds of possibilities, and if there's any good ideas out there, let me know. We'll try it."

Last week, Reisman tossed out the opening pitch for his beloved New York Yankees during their game against the Boston Red Sox. After years of throwing baseballs in arcs to counter gravity, he had to relearn how to throw in a straight line, he said.

His former Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson, who landed on April 19 with two crewmates, had a different tack. She held a flying relay race between the station's joint six-astronaut crew of the Expedition 16 and 17 crews.

"We raced from one end of a module, relayed with the person waiting at the other end three modules away, and then sprinted back and sent a third person," Whitson said. "So it was pretty fun."

Her team, which included Reisman, won, she added.

AP Photo/Julie Jacobson Seen on the large television screen at Yankee Stadium, Garrett Reisman throws out the first pitch from the international space station before the game between the Yankees and Red Sox on April 16.

Finding a sport
Space station astronauts are scheduled to work an average of about 6 1/2 hours each day, with about two hours set aside for exercise and about 8 1/2 reserved for sleep. But astronauts, like the rest of us, will squeeze in some fun during their off-hours.

"They're going to be creative, they're going to play with things," said Walter Sipes, a NASA psychologist specializing in long-duration spaceflight support at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "These might be lower priority activities, but they're higher on keeping the morale up."

While they don't have a sports locker, station astronauts do have some gear at their disposal, Sipes told SPACE.com.

In addition to their space treadmill and stationary bike, they've played weightless basketball, Frisbee and tossed boomerangs, to name a few activities. But the rules change in the absence of gravity.

"It definitely takes skill to be able to throw objects in space," said Whitson, adding it has to be developed just like the ability to move in weightless conditions. "Overcoming an opponent requires some skill. I think there'll be a lot of new games that they come up with."

Low gravity games have gained some ground on Earth as well.

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