NASA Sends Butterflies, Caterpillars Into Space
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: NASA, Butterflies, Space, ISS, Caterpillars | Themes: Business
NASA is sending a butterfly habitat containing monarch and painted lady adults and larvae to the International Space Station.
The space-traveling insects are part of a project dubbed "Butterflies in Space." Once they arrive at the ISS, K-12 students across America will monitor the CU-Boulder butterfly experiment, studying the effects space travel has on the bugs at the ISS compared to examples reared in their own classrooms.
According to Science Daily, the butterfly payload was designed by BioServe Space Technologies in the University of Colorado at Boulder's aerospace engineering department. The habitat will contain monarch butterflies and painted lady butterfly larvae with enough nectar and other food to support them as they develop.
ScienceDaily cites BioServe Payload Mission Manager Stefanie Countryman as saying the painted lady butterfly larvae will be six days old and the monarch butterflies will be about 10 days old at launch. Transferred from Atlantis to the ISS about two days later, it will take the butterfly larvae about five days to pupate and form a cocoon, and another seven to 10 days to emerge.
Participating classrooms across the country have been provided with kits containing butterfly larvae. Students will monitor the growth rates, feeding, pupation and the emergence of the butterflies, comparing what they see in their own classroom to what they're seeing in the images from the ISS. Images of the ISS habitat will be taken every 15 minutes, downlinked daily and uploaded to the web for students to see.
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The butterflies need to survive the launch first!
Great...now due to space radiation we are going to get back Mothra or something of the sort. Somebody wake up Godzilla.
Great...now due to space radiation we are going to get back Mothra or something of the sort. Somebody wake up Godzilla.
or the stay puft marshmallow man.
Wonder if the low gravity is going to make them bigger or maybe even explode?
I wonder how well they can fly in zero-G...
No potato chips allowed aboard, just in case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnPGDWD_oLE
They don't do well in zero G. Many plants can't survive in space either though putting plants in a centrifuge helps. Can you imagine if you're a plant and you don't know which way your roots are supposed to grow due to the absence of gravity, that would suxor!
did they send of the butterfly off to outer space in hope the butterfly will exposed with some radiation and then mutating into something else?
I get what they are doing but, WHY!?
Is there a real purpose for this?
Nice to know how the government is waisting our money...
I get what they are doing but, WHY!?Is there a real purpose for this?Nice to know how the government is wasting our money...
hey any federal employee will tell you that there are a lot better ways to waste money. just this past week our shop bought a part for a 30 year old radio for 3500 bucks when a brand new radio costs 1800 bucks. welcome to the world of WTF!!!!
"NASA Sends Butterflies, Caterpillars Into Space" ... "and they died"
Well, I think these studies should be done... a little later... when space travel is more a common thing. You know, maybe when the actual space elevator is done...?
Seriously, for now it such trivial data that the NASA is wasting money on this.
I was thinking more of a deadspace type deal with the ISS. They mutate into body snatching killing machines.
canary...coal mine ..?!!
I get what they are doing but, WHY!?Is there a real purpose for this?Nice to know how the government is waisting our money...
I think you mean "wasting." This is exactly why the government is spending this money: to encourage education. Maybe if cool learning experiences like this interest kids more in school and learning, we'll have fewer hopelessly ignorant people in the world.
Is a wonder PETA isnt all butt hurt about this.
Now, that's a verb you don't come across too often ...
To heck with sending insects and such up to space, they can send me up and see how I react to 0G. Hint: A lot of puking. Now that's science.
This is just stupid. It's a feel-good propaganda thing for schools. Big giant waste of money.
They should just give it up. We're never gonna live in space.
Star Trek is a TV show. There are no Vulcans.
This is just stupid. It's a feel-good propaganda thing for schools. Big giant waste of money.They should just give it up. We're never gonna live in space.Star Trek is a TV show. There are no Vulcans.
You sir, are a giant arse. They probably didn't send butterflies on their own shuttle, it was probably a side project on a already schedueled mission. That's how they do these things.
Star Trek is NOT a TV show, its real. And the Vulcans, are going to mind-meld you and make you think you're a giant arse. Which you are.
I SAID GOOD DAY SIR!
What happened to the old school sending monkeys and dogs into space??
What happened to the old school sending monkeys and dogs into space??
Too similar to us I guess, nothing to see but some disorientation and muscle deterioration.
Wake me up when the headline reads "NASA Sends Elephants, Hippopotami Into Space"
I want to see a butterfly trying to fly in zero gravity...
they should send President Obama into space, then throw him out the airlock without a space suit, nancy pelosi can be the control, they can shove her out with a space suit and let the oxygen run out.
It would get us valuable data that we need, it would stop trillions of dollars worth of government spending (paying for nasa to operate for at least a century) AND it would be fun!
"Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high, take a look, its in a book, its reading rainbow."
Sorry guys, couldn't resist.
Personally, I like this kind of experiment. The biggest drawback of space faring is the inability to produce resources while in space. Butterflies are good pollination insects and seeing how natural wildlife adapts to 0 gravity "at birth" is peak for scientific interests. After all, imagine what a 0 gravity or ultra low gravity organism may actually look like or function. Especially considering for some reason Dinosaurs were friggen HUGE considering they evolved under Earth Gravity.
The Dinosaurs were HUGE because there was FAR more oxygen in our atmosphere.
This is a very good experiment. However, I pity the butterflies... they must have freaked out.. OMG.. where's the gravity Oh NOOO...
Humans on the other hand, can figure out (well, maybe for some.. haha..) on what's happening.. How would butterflies make sense of what's happening to their flight.. hehe..
The Dinosaurs were HUGE because there was FAR more oxygen in our atmosphere.
Well size is mostly dependend on the abundence of food as well, crocs a few million years ago were pretty damn large, because of the excess food supply.
Less food = become smaller (In size or population) or die out
They don't do well in zero G. Many plants can't survive in space either though putting plants in a centrifuge helps. Can you imagine if you're a plant and you don't know which way your roots are supposed to grow due to the absence of gravity, that would suxor!
Gravity has nothing to do with root development. They have been growing plants and carrying out experiment in space for years. Thats part of what they research up there. I think this butterfly experiment is great. Its a great learning experience and despite what people above are saying it is not costing a ton of money because the butterflies are negligible payload and they were going to be going to the ISS anyway. Its not like they made a special visit to the ISS just to bring the butterflies.