There have been TV spots from orbit with an astronaut creating a free-floating sphere of some beverage and then sneaking up on it and closing his mouth around it. What happens if one gets away and hits a control panel? (The sphere looks so much like a rubber ball I almost expect it to bounce off.)
Thanks
Mr. Curious Rides Again
Favorite Answer
Both answer are somewhat correct. The thing that would happen though, here on earth, when a drop of water hits a surface, lets say the ground, it does "splat" when it hits, but what also occurs here on earth and in space, is that the splat results in the drop becoming shattered into many different pieces, segments I believe would be proper, and these segments here on earth are subject to gravity just as the original drop was and they too would fall to the ground and also break into segments until their inertia was conquered by gravity.
Now in theory, in outer space, a drop hits the floor, breaks into segments, and eventually those segments would hit something and break into smaller segments, and so on and so forth, in theory, could continue until they became atom size and part of the air within the sphere they travel in.
Remember, what happens here on earth under it's pull of gravity, usually works completely different in a zero gravity environment.
You could throw a fast ball in space at 90 miles an hour, and barring that it was able to avoid any gravity force, it would eventually reach the outer most reaches of all the galaxy, and continue on to infinity. And you know what happens when a ball thrown here, 100 feet and it hits the ground.
Now electrically, could cause major short circuit problems.
I hope this helped.
Happy Holidays!
John Doe
The previous answer is correct, it would splat like on earth (the surface area covered would vary depending on velocity and volume of liquid). The more important answer to your question though is that if it landed on a "control panel" you might end up with some technical difficulties depending on exactly where it lands as water is about the worst thing you can do to technology. The good news is though that space shuttles are designed to withstand various temperatures and pressures (quite a beating) so they may not be screwed.
Anonymous
It will behave exactly as it would on earth, with the following caveat. It could theoretically be moving so slowly that surface tension would hold it together. But otherwise, it will just slowly splat against the wall. Its actual method of splat will be different in "zero-g" but it will still just splat.