History Main / ImprovisedMicrogravityManeuvering

* During the climax of ''[[AlexRider Ark Angel]]'', Alex finds himself unable to reach anything while floating around on a space station, and resorts to taking his shoes off and throwing them.

* ''Film/HaroldAndKumarEscapeGuantanamoBay''; Harold has the only parachute, and he tells Kumar to "swim" in the air, so Harold can catch him, then open the parachute and save both their lives. It's not space, but they're in freefall, so that counts as microgravity.

* ''HaroldAndKumar Escape Guantanamo Bay''. Harold has the only parachute, and he tells Kumar to "swim" in the air, so Harold can catch him, then open the parachute and save both their lives. It's not space, but they're in freefall, so that counts as microgravity.

** This troper is skeptical about the explanation above and thinks somebody is trying to kill us all.

* In ''EventHorizon'', one of the characters, stranded outside the ship, uses the remaining air in his spacesuit as a jet engine in order to get back to the air lock.

* John Crichton maneuvered himself with a pulse rifle on ''{{Farscape}}''.

* One hypothesized way to do this, if you're in a sufficiently curved space time, is to [[http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;299/5614/1865?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=wisdom&andorexacttitle=or&andorexacttitleabs=or&andorexactfulltext=or&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&fdate=7/1/1880&tdate=7/31/2009&resourcetype=HWCIT,HWELTR swim]]! Unfortunately it is almost unimaginably slow.

* The Doctor in ''DoctorWho'', threw a cricket ball in one direction in order to move himself in the other.

* In ''{{Freefall}},'' Sam had difficulty maneuvering when he first went into space, but he came up with two solutions involving [[DuctTapeForEverything duct tape.]] First, Florence gave him a stick with duct tape wrapped around the ends for pushing off of surfaces. Later, when he was caught without his stick, he resorted to wrapping duct tape around his hands to climb along walls.

* Used in ''Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life'', after an accidental ejection from a car. [[http://www.bohemiandrive.com/comics/npwil/47.html It will take a while]].

A form of {{MacGyvering}} where the hero creates thrust to push him/herself through the microgravity of space with something other than a standard engine. Of course, since there's no air resistance in the vacuum of space, almost anything will do. Thank you, Newton's Third Law!

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!!Examples:

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]
* Spike Spiegel from CowboyBebop once used the recoil from a pistol in such a fashion.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''EventHorizon'', one of the characters, stranded outside the ship, uses the remaining air in his spacesuit as a jet engine in order to get back to the air lock.
* ''In Like Flint''. Derek Flint uses a "sonic amplifier" to maneuver in space. Did I mention he's IN SPACE, which is a vacuum?
* In ''2001 A Space Odyssey'', Dave Bowman uses the explosive decompression of the air inside his travel pod to return to the Discovery's airlock.
* ''HaroldAndKumar Escape Guantanamo Bay''. Harold has the only parachute, and he tells Kumar to "swim" in the air, so Harold can catch him, then open the parachute and save both their lives. It's not space, but they're in freefall, so that counts as microgravity.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In the Isaac Asimov short story ''"Marooned Off Vesta"'', the characters maneuvered by cutting a hole in a water tank and using the escaping water as thrusting mass.
* In Poul Anderson's short novel ''The Makeshift Rocket'' (also known as ''A Bicycle Built for Brew''), the hero used a goofball contraption consisting of a spacesuit, several lashed-together crates, and a rocket motor that uses the gas from agitated beer barrels for propulsion.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]
* The Doctor in ''DoctorWho'', threw a cricket ball in one direction in order to move himself in the other.
* John Crichton maneuvered himself with a pulse rifle on ''{{Farscape}}''.
* In the pilot for ''Come Back Mrs Noah'', Mrs Noah maneuvers in Zero G by spritzing her perfume sprayer.

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

* Used in NinePlanetsWithoutIntelligentLife, after an accidental ejection from a car. [[http://www.bohemiandrive.com/comics/npwil/47.html It will take a while]].

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]
* In ''TitanAE'', Captain Korso used a fire extinguisher to maneuver.

[[AC:RealLife]]

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* ''In Like Flint''. Derek Flint uses a "sonic amplifier" to maneuver in space. Did I mention he's IN SPACE, [[{{Wallbanger}} which is a vacuum?]]

[[AC:{{VideoGames}}]]

* Arthur C. Clarke's novel ''The Sands of Mars'' featured an astronaut who once managed to stop and get stuck in the middle of a room. He eventually started throwing clothing the opposite way. That a very badly timed VIP tour explain why he's stuck in the space boonies during the events of the novel.

* A famous orbital mechanics problem about this goes: if you're stranded 50 feet behind the space shuttle with only a wrench to maneuver with, how can you get back to the shuttle? If you were in deep space, the correct answer would of course be to throw the wrench away from the shuttle, causing you to drift slowly toward it. The space shuttle is in near-Earth orbit, however, and it turns out that this means the correct answer is to throw the wrench ''toward'' the shuttle; this will drop you into a lower (and thus faster) orbit than the shuttle is in, allowing you to catch up with it.

* A famous orbital mechanics problem about this goes: if you're stranded 50 feet behind the space shuttle with only a wrench to maneuver with, how can you get back to the shuttle? If you were in deep space, the correct answer would of course be to throw the wrench away from the shuttle, causing you to drift slowly toward it. The space shuttle is in near-Earth orbit, however, and it turns out that this means the correct answer is to throw the wrench ''toward'' the shuttle; this will drop you into a lower (and thus faster) orbit than the shuttle is in, allowing you to catch up with it.