Can Spiders Live in Space?
WouterIt’s been a decade since NASA’s first attempt to study spiders in space. The original experiment was a failure, but in 2011 it was re-run. This time, scientists brought two orb weaver spiders onboard the International Space Station (ISS). They were given food in the form of fruit flies.
The arachnids had to survive 65 days in zero gravity. While they were able to build asymmetrical webs, they were less regular than webs built in normal gravity. The results were published in the Science of Nature journal.
In a previous experiment, scientists used four male and four female spiders to build asymmetrical webs in normal gravity. They were kept in cubic habitats. The habitats were lit with six white LED lamps for 12 hours. The lights helped the spiders find their way around the habitat.
However, the spiders were not playful. They kept their heads down in pre-attack mode. When the lights were turned on, they switched orientations and started building webs differently. They anchored the silk at a second anchor point. This gave the scientists a better idea of how the spiders navigated in microgravity.
It took two months to monitor the spiders. Researchers captured images every five minutes. They also compared webs from the ISS with the same webs that were made on Earth.
In addition to the ISS, the labs of BioServe Space Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, provided controls for the experiment. These labs were identical to the ISS conditions except for gravity.
