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Ever since they were announced, the spiders in space have been living in the limelight. This is, of course, the point -- to watch and learn as the pair of golden orb spiders, or Nephila clavipes, adapt to living in microgravity on the International Space Station. As a result, these two arachnids, dubbed Gladys and Esmeralda by astronaut Cady Coleman, are reaching celebrity status.
The spiders are part of the scientific investigation called Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus Science Insert-05, or CSI-05. This study houses the two spiders in separate habitats and includes chambers for their food supply of fruit flies. Artificial light simulates day and nighttime, as well as temperature and humidity control. The habitats reside in the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, or CGBA, on the station, which controls imaging of the arachnids' activities.
After launching in style as part of the last flight of Endeavour on May 16, 2011, the spiders found their popularity continued to grow. Teachers registered more than 130,000 students so far, gaining instructional materials and the chance to tune in and follow the arachnids' antics via space station videos. In one of the more recent video uploads, Esmeralda displayed diva-like qualities as she showed her hunting skills to be as sharp as ever in microgravity. The video of her capturing a fruit fly on May 26, 2011 is on now available for viewing on YouTube.
Schools around the globe continue to participate in the spider study by visiting BioEd Online. From this site teachers can download a guide to create a control habitat, complete with spider, for their classrooms. "Spiders and space are two things that capture the imagination of most kids, so it's a recipe for fascinating science in the schools," comments International Space Station Associate Program Scientist Tara Ruttley. "I think this will create great memories for the students, and a way to show them how science can be fun as their science classes become more challenging through the years."
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The golden orb spider actually spins and then consumes its web on a daily basis. This practice provides the protein necessary to enable renewed web activities each day. Ruttley found this out firsthand, "I noticed the web was gone the next morning, this is because the golden orb spiders actually eat their web overnight and start again the next day, all fresh."
The golden orb spider usually spins a three dimensional, asymmetric web on Earth, but in space they spin more circular webs. The current spiders also prefer to spin according to a timetable, as compared to the orb spiders -- Larinioides patagiatus and Metepeira -- from the previous CSI-03 investigation, who would spin at all times of day. "These spiders seem to stick to a more regimented schedule of spinning in the early morning hours and taking their web down right after lights out." said Stefanie Countryman, Project Manager for CSI-05 at BioServe Space Technologies, University of Colorado."
Originally posted by Illustronic
An interesting observation of exoskeleton creatures in space is that they grow faster, grow stronger and display greater quickness in microgravity, which is the opposite effects on humans, and I suppose all endoskeleton creatures relying on gravity to use and build muscles. Russian space observations of cockroaches confirm this, even though this wasn't discussed in this NASA article.
Here is one article about the Russian microgravity cockroaches.