SPiders in Space

[kkirrane]

It is the first time in three years that a space shuttle is not bound for the international space station (news - web sites) or the Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites).


Columbia's 16-day mission features more than 80 experiments from around the world. A pair of Israeli cameras will measure desert dust in the atmosphere. Also on board: spiders, ants, silkworms, mealworms, carpenter bees, fish embryos and rats.

 

[MrT]

Do you have any idea what kind of spiders went? Tarantula's?
What kind of experiments?
And lastly, I see you registered in Oct. and this is your first post.
Welcome, what took you so long?

Ernie

 

[Tarantula]

Did they say what the point in bringing them all the way up there was?

 

[pauls]

I'm not sure about the name of the spider, but it's not a tarantula. They are the only spider that makes perfectly symetrical webs. I guess they want to see how well they make webs in zero gravity. I'm pretty sure that is what's going on.

-Paul

 

[Slide]

It was a species of Australian orbweaver, that's known for being hearty and resilient. The specific reason for taking it was because they know that, on Earth, it makes perfectly symetrical webs under pretty much all coniditions, so they're using it as a sort of benchmark to see how much microgravity, and other cosmic phenomenon, mess with it. Somehow they plan to apply this knowledge to the physical affects of extended missions in space...

UPDATE: Here's the actual story from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/01/09/offbeat.australia.spiders.ap/index.html

 

[nocturnalpulsem]

Originally posted by pauls
I'm not sure about the name of the spider, but it's not a tarantula. They are the only spider that makes perfectly symetrical webs. I guess they want to see how well they make webs in zero gravity. I'm pretty sure that is what's going on.

-Paul

Didn't they do that already??? I know I saw pics of that in the 5th grade...

N.