Liquid living worms survive space

Worms have survived their first space mission in liquid form.

The result, published in a Royal Society journal, means worm colonies can be established on space stations without the need for researchers to tend to them

www.bbc.co.uk...

Our little wriggly buddies are helping us to figure out how to live in space in the long term
I think we need to speed up the process of finding out how to survive long term missions, let's find somewhere where they is no credit crunch/No guns/no bombs/No advertising and just be human

That headline (not the OP's fault) is a bit misleading, ESA experiments with bacteria and little Tardigrade animals actually survived exposure to space and were rehydrated to live and reproduce after rehydration. These worms were kept protected from exposure to space, its was just microgravity they survived.

Speaking on the muscle deterioration in microgravity, Russian experiments with exoskeleton cockroaches conceived in space revealed the ET-cockroaches exhibited greater speed in mobility and growth than their parents, as well as strength.

Why anyone would invite cockroaches in a confined living quarter like space is another story, maybe the Russians are messy eaters in space. Mutant super-cockroaches from space.

reply to post by Illustronic

Oop's my bad I thought they were big worms

Should I say that humans shouldnt play with cockroaches ? They can already survive a nuclear war , we don't need to make them better .

reply to post by boymonkey74


Its not the size of the worms, its mostly this part...

In preparation for longer spaceflight, scientists have designed shields to deflect harmful energetic particles, and continue to study the ill-effect of weightlessness on astronauts.

, coupled with the attention grabbing headline that the BBC felt compelled to use. They do that a lot and are usually spartan with facts, (they didn't even specify what kind of worms they were).

Tardigrades you can see, over a millimeter in long, and they were actually exposed to space for over a week. The issue I point out is with the BBC, not you.

reply to post by OrNaM3nT


Not true at all, radiation effects us more because we have more complex cell's than a cockroach so we have more cell's to damage.
dsc.discovery.com...

reply to post by boymonkey74



They are also experimenting the long term effects of space with these worms because they are biologically similar to human beings.

It is the hope that these worms ( Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans ) can possibly help researchers understand how humans might cope with long-duration & deep space exploration.

They were able to successfully monitor the effects of low Earth orbit on 12 generations of the worms during the first three months of their six month stay onboard the International Space Station.

Dr Szewczyk said: “A fair number of scientists agree that we could colonize other planets. While this sounds like science fiction it is a fact that if mankind wants to avoid the natural order of extinction then we need to find ways to live on other planets. Thankfully most of the world’s space agencies are committed to this common goal.

“While it may seem surprising, many of the biological changes that happen during spaceflight affect astronauts and worms and in the same way. We have been able to show that worms can grow and reproduce in space for long enough to reach another planet and that we can remotely monitor their health.

As a result C. elegans is a cost effective option for discovering and studying the biological effects of deep space missions. Ultimately, we are now in a position to be able to remotely grow and study an animal on another planet.”

Source

Ultimately the goal is colonization of other planets,which I am all for and endorse...As long as we leave behind all of the bureaucrats,tyrants,bankers and any other destructive,negative individual who would eventually start a repeat of what we already have here on Earth.

I think it would be absolutely fascinating to visit another planet that could sustain human life.

ETA: s&f op thank you for the post