Spider spins web in space

What if there are colonies of spiders that are sent for long periods in space. Will we see some genetic mutation that helps them adjust to the space and gravity or rather lack of it?

Astronauts were hunting for a missing party guest as they prepared to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the International Space Station.

One of two spiders sent to the orbiting laboratory aboard the space shuttle Endeavour last week was added to the lost property list after the crew checked its tank and found it empty.

Anxious to quash fears that the absent arachnid may be marauding around the space station, Nasa managers insisted that the second orb-weaver was not exactly lost, it just couldn’t be found.

"We don’t believe that it’s escaped the overall payload enclosure,” assured Kirk Shireman, Nasa’s deputy space station programme manager.

“I’m sure we’ll find him spinning a web sometime here in the next few days,” he added hopefully.

Astronauts suspect that the spider may have simply gone for an impromptu spacewalk into its neighbour’s tank, though the pair were securely sealed off from one another at launch and were meant to spend their three-month research mission apart.

Spider silk is a remarkably strong material. Its tensile strength is superior to that of high-grade steel, and as strong as Aramid filaments, such as Twaron or Kevlar. Most importantly, spider silk is extremely lightweight: a strand of spider silk long enough to circle the earth would weigh less than 16 ounces (450 g)