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Science Friday: Quirkiest Space Shuttle Science

Submitted by Tjadendevries on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 1:02pm


Quirkiest Space Shuttle Science

    The four astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis will not be alone when they blast into space today (assuming the launch proceeds as scheduled). The last shuttle mission will also carry 30 mice that are part of an experiment to better understand why astronauts lose bone mass when they hang out in low-Earth orbit.

    The mouse study is typical of the type of research that seemed to dominate space shuttle science: investigations devoted to figuring out how the human body—and the microbes that parasitize us—cope with space. It’s the kind of work that’s necessary if we want to safely send people on long-term missions to Mars and beyond.

    With all of the talk about the end of the space shuttle program, I wondered what other science has happened aboard Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery and Endeavour. I found some surprises. Here are my favorite quirky space shuttle science projects:

    A rose in space smells as sweet—or sweeter: The fragrance of flowers comes from the plants’ essential oils. Many environmental factors influence the oils that a flower produces—and one of those factors is apparently gravity. In 1998, the perfume manufacturer International Flavors & Fragrances sent a small rose called Overnight Scentsation into space aboard Discovery. Astronauts grew the rose in a special chamber and collected its oils. In the low-gravity conditions of Earth’s orbit, the flower made fewer essential oils, and the oils it did produce smelled different (a “floral rose aroma” instead of “a very green, fresh rosy note”). Back on Earth, the perfume company synthesized the rose’s space oils to create a new fragrance that is now in Shiseido’s perfume called Zen.

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More

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2011/07/quirkiest-space-shuttle-science/


Spider Weaves a Web in Space

    A national education program being carried out right now on the International Space Station involves watching the behavior or animals and insects in microgravity. This video is of Esmerelda, a golden silk orb-weaver spider (Nephila clavipes), weaving a web in her new low-gravity home. Typically, an orb-weaver will spin an asymmetrical web, but researchers have noticed that those spun by the two spiders on the ISS are becoming more circular. In addition, the spiders no longer sit at the tops of their webs facing downwards, and are instead hanging out in all sorts of positions to look out for their captured prey–something that doesn’t happen here on Earth.

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http://www.neatorama.com/2011/07/04/spider-weaves-a-web-in-space/