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Russian Silkworms Spin First Space Silk In History
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Oct 04, 2007 Silkworms on board the recent Russian Foton-M bio-satellite flight span the first space silk in history, a Moscow school teacher revealed Tuesday. As part of the satellite's scientific program, Moscow school students, led by biology teacher Alexander Koloskov, carried out an experiment to study how weightlessness influences the life cycle of silkworms. Experiments on board the satellite also revealed that worms are able to produce silk in microgravity conditions, but can not pupate, as they pass silk threads around the sticks they are sitting on rather than around their bodies. Disorientation was given as one possible reason for this. Koloskov said that during the next stage of the research the students will send butterflies into space to study how insects adopt to microgravity. "It is will be very interesting to study how a butterfly is able to fly and eat in microgravity, where there is no "up" and "down," he said. The re-entry module of the Foton-M bio-satellite successfully landed at 11.58 a.m. Moscow time (7:58 am GMT). The September 14-26 flight was part of an ongoing experiment into the effects of space flight by the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP). Shortly after the satellite landed, all the creatures onboard, including gerbils, cockroaches and butterflies, were put down and then dissected, so that scientists from different countries could study their internal organs. "Each organ will be studied by an expert," said Boris Shenkman of the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP). He explained that international agreements on experiments on animals do not allow pain to be inflicted on them. As each scientist specializes on a certain body part, it is more humane to put the creatures down. During the Foton-M spaceflight, a total of 26 unique experiments were carried out. The experiments were ordered by Roscosmos (the Russian Federal Space Agency), NASA, the European Space Agency, and a number of universities from five countries. Russia plans to launch three more bio-satellites by 2015, and the research program of "Bion-M1" bio satellite, scheduled to be launched in 2010, has already been drafted, Yevgeny Ilyin of the IBMP said. "I can say for sure that there will be rodents - rats, gerbils, and just a lot of ordinary mice" - he said, adding that the institute does not plan to carry out experiments on larger mammals, such as monkeys.
Source: RIA Novosti Related Links Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News
Iowa State Engineer Develops Technology To Quickly Find Leaks In Spacecraft
Ames IO (SPX) Oct 04, 2007Tiny meteors flash through space. There's spacecraft debris flying around, too. And so there's a risk that objects just a few millimeters across could pierce the thin aluminum skin of spacecraft such as the International Space Station orbiting 220 miles above Earth. A tiny hole means a tiny leak of pressurized air. "NASA wants to be able to find these leaks," said Dale Chimenti, an Iowa State University professor of aerospace engineering. "Fixing them is easy. But the question is, 'Where is the leak?"' |
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