Numerous baby squids from Hawaii have been sent to space to study the effects of spaceflight. They were sent to space earlier on June 3 through the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The resupply mission included these invertebrates as well as tardigrades. Researchers also sent up cotton and tissue chips to check how plants and kidney stones fare in almost no gravity, reported the Daily Mail.
Scientists on the International Space Station are going to see how spaceflight affects the molecular and chemical characteristics of microbes as they interact with animal hosts. Chosen to represent this relation is the bobtail squid, which will be studied to analyze the symbiotic relationship it has with tardigrades.
What's the goal of the study?
It is crucial to see all aspects and observe anything that can happen between a squid and tardigrade under circumstances where there are alterations in gravity. This experiment is important because its conclusions will be used to support technology that will apply to humans. Potentially, the experiment can lessen the hazardous effects on astronauts during long-haul space flights. NASA sends squids and tardigrades that will provide a piece of this puzzle.
One of the goals is to identify how the complex relationship between water bears and the bobtail squid works. Analyzing the invertebrate and what it will do in the zero-gravity environment, like how its pigmentation will react, is what scientists will pay attention to.
According to Jamie Foster, Understanding of Microgravity on Animal-Microbe Interactions (UMAMI) expert, when astronauts stay in space longer, it might change how immune systems work. They can be deregulated and malfunction. One of the changes is antibodies cannot identify beneficial bacteria, resulting in some astronauts getting sick, noted ABC News. She added that spaceflight changes how chemical reactions work, especially good bacteria. Critical to UMAMI is how the squid is affected health-wise too.
A tardigrade or water bear will be another aspect of the ISS experiment. Its study is focused on knowing what specific genes are used in its adaptability and hardiness in stressful environments. One thing found out about the water bear is that it is virtually immortal. They can be frozen, boiled alive, crushed, and hit with radiation -- and live.
NASA sees the importance of such abilities because they may be developed and tapped to give astronauts an advantage, especially in the harsh environment that most humans will need to survive in the future.
According to Thomas Boothby, space is the next goal and it should have a solution for humans and animals that are out of place in the vastness of space, noted NPR.
Examining how water bears survive in the most extreme of environments and observing how they adapt and multiply in the most hostile environment can produce useful data for protecting astronauts. NASA sends squids and tardigrades into space as test subjects to check the ways how gravity affects other animals and then use what is learned in future space flights.
