Spider Missing After Trip To Space Station 507
Garabito writes "A spider that had been sent to the International Space Station for a school science program was lost. Two arachnids were sent in order to know if spiders can survive and make webs in space, but now only one spider can be seen in the container. NASA isn't sure where the other spider could have gone. I, for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords."
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I would guess: outside the container! At least if they have looked through it all and you're incorrect.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Found it! [finlosreviews.com]
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Informative)
If this was the result of spider cannibalism, it'd be easier to just find the dessicated spider husk left in the container. They probably checked for that.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Where oh where? (Score:4, Funny)
meta
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Spiders on drugs is just as interesting. (Video) [youtube.com] (Pictures) [trinity.edu]
Think about that before your next Jolt Cola.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:4, Insightful)
Think about that before your next Jolt Cola.
I like how the spider on THC did better than the one on caffeine. We should outlaw caffeine and legalize pot.... clearly the caffeine is more dangerous ;)
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
The only reason that THC is illegal and caffeine is legal is because Big Caffeine is so powerful. Fuckin' JFK killed in Dallas, same place Starbucks started. Makes you think, don't it?
Don't bogart that thing, man. Pass it over here.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Well I don't know I
Heard it started
Out
Of a
Small town just outside Dallas
However I might be wrong.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
H ow c a n the people k n ow s o little about ho w S t arbucks j oined the CIA, the Ma f ia, and the K nights Templar to take out JFK?
But JFK shot first...
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Because for every spider we send to space, that's one less left here on earth trying to eat us.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Actually youve probably eaten more spiders than spiders have eaten you.
so far
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Because it gets kids interested in science and space. There's little "new" stuff to learn from it, but there is a HUGE future benefit to getting kids directly involved in science projects like that. They learn the scientific process, how to think about things logically, and so on, and are attracted to it because it is such a big thing. It's not some silly chemistry lab experiment, they actually get to talk to astronauts and stuff.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Shuttle Flight: $500 million
Spider habitat: $9
Losing half of test subjects: Priceless
Not necessarily (Score:5, Interesting)
All spiders can only ingest liquid food, and in fact have two filters to prevent solids from getting in.
From there it gets funnier:
- most spiders simply inject the prey with enzymes that liquefy its innards, then suck the resulting liquid lunch. In this case they'd still find the empty chitin shell of the spider.
- some actually "chew" the food while flooding it with enzymes to dissolve it, but I'm guessing even in this case they'd still find legs and whatnot from the dead spider.
I guess the big question at this point is exactly what species of spider were these two.
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Funny)
I guess the big question at this point is exactly what species of spider were these two.
Especially, if it happened to be a non-cannibalistic species.
That would suggest that outer space turns spiders into cannibals.
Why haven't we seen this effect on humans yet?
Maybe it takes a while for those wacky cosmic-cannibal-rays to accumulate, and humans have just not been up in outer space long enough?
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Funny)
Why haven't we seen this effect on humans yet?
I was going to make a joke about how we had, and the Columbia disaster was actually a deliberate destruction so the public wouldn't realize NASA's cannibalism problem when only half the crew came back. But then I thought "Naw, too soon." But then I thought "Aw, what the hell."
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Funny)
I still remember driving back in to town after a week of camping and seeing all the flags at half staff, leaving a lurching feeling in the pit of my stomach. Had we been attacked? Had our president been assassinated? I asked the people I came across on the street to find out what tragedy had befallen our country, but no one knew. I saw a news stand and went to it. It was there I saw the first images of the exploding ball of flame, ending the lives of Americans who sought to extend the boundaries that has always limited men. It was a day I'll never forget.
You insensitive clod.
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Funny)
You're right, that was very insensitive of me. I'm sorry if I offended you. Now to smooth things over with the healing power of laughter, here are some cannibal astronaut jokes.
Q: What do you call an astronaut that leaves the ship without a space suit?
A: Frozen dinner.
Q: Why was the astronaut afraid to go back in the shuttle when she lost her tool bag?
A: She didn't want to get chewed out.
Q: Why were the astronauts upset when NASA invented a red wine equivalent of Tang?
A: Because everyone knows red wines don't go with white meat.
Ah, that was cathartic. I feel much better. You?
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not necessarily (Score:4, Interesting)
We have a small tarantula here in the high desert that gets about half as big as a man's little finger, plus legs. One summer I kept one in a jar and fed it live grasshoppers. It must not have required its food to be all that liquid -- this spider would eat a grasshopper nearly as large as itself in 15 seconds flat. Munch-munch-munch-GONE, exoskeleton, innards, and all (except it sometimes didn't eat all the legs). It almost looked like a magic trick -- "how did you stuff that big grasshopper into that little spider??"
BTW these tarantulas' vision is apparently good enough to tell when a human is approaching with lunch. If I just came up to look, it would ignore me. If I had a grasshopper in my hand, it would get excited and run round and round in its jar.
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Funny)
They quoted a NASA official as saying that just because we can't see it doesn't mean it isn't in the box, we haven't opened the box to verify it.
Schrödinger's spider?
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Funny)
Dammmit, you beat me to it. And with my nick, I should have got to it first. Or maybe not. It's uncertain.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Well, I would certainly hope NASA isn't dumb enough to send poisonous spiders into space into small, confined quarters with a few humans. That could end poorly, to say the least.
All spiders are venomous (I doubt the humans up there plan to eat the thing, so whether they're poisonous is irrelevant). The important thing is whether they're big and strong enough to inject the venom into a human.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
In fact one doesn't have to worry about larger animals either
[snip]
one of the few things our army snipers have had to do
Well, I for one would be careful around those army snipers. I'd sooner take on a spider any day.
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Funny)
Those are traditionally referred to as 'nightmares'.
Aha! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not necessarily (Score:5, Funny)
Images like that remind me of my ex-wife.
Re: (Score:3)
Evolution has never been offered so large a pile of meat as the human race.
Vegetarians for world peace! Soylent green is not the solution!
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
That's why Heidi let the bag go yesterday. I know my wife runs out of the room screaming when she sees a spider.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Worry not, I'm sure NASA is already firing up their ion cannon to fight the beast. It masquerades by day as a mild-mannered Earth sensing satellite.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
STATUS CHECK 11/20/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH PRESENT
STATUS CHECK 11/21/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH MISSING, PLEASE VERIFY
STATUS CHECK 11/22/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH PRESENT
STATUS CHECK 11/22/08 16:05 UTC: ION CANNON COORDINATES RECIEVED. FIRING
STATUS CHECK 11/23/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH PRESENT
Re: (Score:3)
I admit, I LOLd.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Insightful)
Arachnophobia is the most common phobia, certainly in the western world. It's certainly not innate. Babies show no fear of spider at all. We pick arachnophobia up from our parents and from those around us, and it's easy to see why. When people around you, and almost everyone you see in contemporary media displays arachnophobia, it's hard not to be arachnophobic. Hollywood's use of spiders, and spider like creatures, as stock horror objects is actually a self perpetuating.
I would compare this to the slightly less common, and more substantiated, fear of wasps and bees. People will become very, very nervous around wasps and bees, jumping up from their seats, running away, or trying to kill the creature. But the reality is that these creatures will rarely sting unless you disturb them or their nest(at least in europe). Nevertheless fear of wasps is much more acceptable than fear of spiders, but only slightly more justifiable, and it's just as irrational.
Some people are so arachnophobic that they will actually kill any spiders they see. It's a very ugly thing to see someone quite viciously slam down a shoe or newspaper on a spider as it tries to scurry to safety. There is no reason to it. At least people who stand on chairs aren't taking it out on the spider. Apparently a cure for a phobia is gentle exposure. A friend of mine went to a spider museum in Prague and apparently lost all apprehension around spider entirely. I'm not sure [allpraha.cz] I'd recommend this for your wife though.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Informative)
No way. I grew up in Pennsylvania with a swimming pool in my backyard. You wouldn't believe how much insects a pool in that area attracts. Many, many times if a few friends were over to swim, and the wasps felt threatened of their water source (for their nests in our attic) then they would get very aggressive. They would even just randomly sting people lounging out on the deck. Bumble bee's are one thing, but wasps just don't even want you nearby (even if you were there first). Also, you preyed everytime you mowed the lawn that you wouldn't disturb an underground nest...
Re:Where oh where? (Score:4, Informative)
Those long-range wasp cans are frickin' awesome, as are the wasp traps. You put them out in the spring, and they never really get a foothold.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Insightful)
Arachnophobia may not be innate (I think you could argue either way on this--my daughter cried when she saw a spider crawling along the rail of her crib--and as far as I know, that's the first time she ever saw one), but it's a reasonable response.
Spiders are venomous. For an average person, identification of spiders at any distance isn't easy, so the "danger! move away" response is the safe one. And eliminating spiders in a child's bedroom, for instance, is pretty much a no-brainer.
Here in California, one of the common spiders is the Black Widow. When I was a child, my father wound up in the hospital after being "bitten" by a Black Widow. Which again means that the "danger! move away" response makes sense.
With bees and wasps, you've got people who know either first or second hand about the pain of a sting, so again, I don't think a moderate amount of fear is unreasonable, no matter that the danger of being stung is pretty low. For people like myself (where anaphylactic shock is a possibility) moving away from the vicinity of bees is not only reasonable, but wise.
All that to say that I don't think some degree of concern about spiders, bees, and wasps is completely unreasonable--which is what a phobia implies.
By the way, I used to scoop up spiders and carry them outside when I found them indoors. But since I've been married, I usually have to vacuum them up. Sheesh--lose track of one spider on the way to the front door and you'll never live it down :-)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Interesting)
In Hawaii, only the tourists are scared of our big-as-your-palm cane spiders. [flickr.com] Everyone else doesn't mind having them in the house because they eat all the other bugs.
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That would certainly make me nervous, however the camel spiders I met during my time in 'the Iraq' nearly made me scream. I know they're not spiders per se...but they're pretty much what you would get if a spider had sex with a nightmare.
Holy [nationalgeographic.com] fucking [camelspiders.net] shit [camelspiders.net].
And here I thought the reason I never joined the military was my fear of being shot or exploded. Little did I know there was a much better reason my subconscious kept me far away!
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Where oh where? (Score:5, Interesting)
Try living in Australia (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Where oh where? (Score:4, Insightful)
but I kill them because I don't want bugs in my house.
And, as you note, you end up with MORE bugs in your house, because the spider isn't batting cleanup anymore.
Unless it's a hazardous spider I generally leave it alone.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So catch them and take them outside. It's not at all difficult.
Perhaps you should work more on sealing your house to outsiders instead of killing the ones that wander in.
Let me be the first to say (Score:5, Funny)
Damn you summary for stealing our memes!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Isn't there extra radiation in space? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Isn't there extra radiation in space? (Score:5, Funny)
Spider one can spin elastic! Two can hide from sight! Spiderone got the crap end of the deal, so it murdered the other one in the night! Here come to the two! The fantastic two!
Hmmm. (Score:3, Funny)
Missing spider (Score:5, Funny)
Lost.
That's what the other spider claims, anyway. In other news, that spider just submitted a replacement for ReiserFS.
Re:Missing spider (Score:5, Funny)
too soon
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Woosh. That was the sound of the reference going right over your head :P
Spider-Cannibal? (Score:2)
Re:Spiders are not cannibals (Score:5, Informative)
Black widow spiders typically prey on a variety of insects, but occasionally they do feed upon woodlice, diplopods, chilopods and other arachnids.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_widow_spider [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Anecdote :
When I lived out in rural farmland, our house had a spider living behind the toilet. He had a small web there and he didn't seem to bother us so we left him there. We named him Boris. We'd find other spiders in the house fairly often, and we would catch them alive and drop them on Boris' web. It was very interesting to watch the battles, since the foreign spider would instinctively(?) know that they were in danger being on someone else's web, and would freeze for long periods of time not moving a
I'll be the first to say it (Score:2, Funny)
*snicker**snort*
Exposure to cosmic rays (Score:2)
spiders on a spaceship! (Score:5, Funny)
Losing Stuff in Space Memes (Score:2)
We've probably all seen the video on youtube with the stoned spiders, and the kooky webs they make. I wonder what the effects of cosmic radiation will be on this spider who will be waiting a long time for a snack to buzz into his web. Unless, by space-surviving spider, they mean he can eat non-living things like dust? I think he likely drifted off like the $100000 tool belt [aol.com] that one space-walking astronaught lost yesterday. At least this loss wasn't as expensive. However it's possible this is a mutated spid
First Post From Space (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
World Wide Web 3.0 (Score:2, Funny)
In a late braking story, Joe the Spider has just begun the first satellite-to-satellite web hookup. Gone are the days of brick-and-mortar, WWW 3.0 is silk.
Go Mighty Joe.
a Web? (Score:2)
Does they really think that spider wants to make a web when there is no mosquitos or flyes etc there?
Mayby thats why the spider dropped off from that trip and went to havana for getting a suntan.
That is why.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That is why.... (Score:5, Funny)
Origin Story? (Score:5, Funny)
Boy Bitten by Radioactive Spider Dies of Leukemia [ryanbaker.org] (Sorry, couldn't source the original)...
makes (Score:5, Funny)
The arachnid was sent in order to know if spiders can survive and makes webs in space...
makes? I makes teh webs and yous gives mes teh bugs. Otherwise, I eats other spiders.
Re:makes (Score:5, Funny)
I'm in ur ear, layin mah eggz.....
Missing? (Score:5, Funny)
If right now, I were an astronaut wearing a spacesuit, I guess I'd be feeling kind of itchy all over...
Enough is Enough! (Score:5, Funny)
I have had it with these motherf***ing spiders on this motherf***ing space station!
(Sorry, couldn't resist...)
Sounds to me like Sabotage (Score:5, Funny)
Step 2: "Lose" spider in space
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Space domination
Robots.txt (Score:4, Funny)
Only one spider could read.
Yo.... (Score:5, Funny)
...check the lid.
How Spiders Eat (Score:5, Informative)
To everyone (including myself) whose first thought was that the one spider ate the other, I'd suggest we consider how spiders eat.
Spiders don't swallow prey whole. If it'd been two or three octopuses, fish, snakes, frogs or any other sort of animal, this would make sense. But I'd be willing to bet one spider eating the other wouldn't have gone unnoticed for at least a couple of reasons. First, spiders don't eat quickly. One spider eating something the same size would be sucking the juices out of the other for quite a long time (hours). Second, the spiders are messy in the sense that they tend to leave dried out carcasses laying around after they're done.
So... that's probably not what happened.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No Ziggy Stardust jokes! (Score:4, Funny)
not missing (Score:5, Funny)
Link to original, more detailed, story. (Score:5, Informative)
From the original article: "Kirk Shireman, deputy shuttle program manager, says that while only one spider is visible, that doesn't mean the other is missing. 'We don't believe he has escaped the payload. I am sure we will find him spinning a web somewhere in the next few days."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's because any news source that gets its revenue from advertising has an inherent conflict of interest.
They make money by selling ads. In order to sell ads, you need large viewer base. In order to get a large viewer base, you have to have interesting (read: sensational) stories. Real news isn't always exciting and rarely sells ads.
This is why I believe most news sources (in America anyway - most especially CNN & Fox) should be required to bear the warning label, "For entertainment purposes only"
Why?... (Score:5, Funny)
Why would you do that? Why would you put a classic reply in your summary of the article and rob some poster of a 5 Funny rating? You're just mean.
Dupe from 1973 (Score:5, Interesting)
Did they check... (Score:5, Funny)
Did they check the tool bag? Oh, wait...
A few centuries from now... (Score:5, Funny)
...an alien probe named S'pdr will encounter the USS Enterprise.
moola (Score:5, Funny)
A spider that had been sent to the International Space Station for a school science program
And they say we don't spend enough on education.
Actually, no missing spider at all. (Score:5, Informative)
Another case of news media sensationalizing what really happened. There are two spiders in the habitat (spider habaitat, not ISS human habitat). The goal is to see how two spiders will interact in micro-gravity.
For about the first 24 hours after launch only one spider was seen. After that BioServe Space Technologies at CU Boulder (the group responsible for the habitat) located the other spider. It had simply been outside of the view of the camera.
Spiders in space... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Spiders in space... (Score:5, Funny)
I would imagine that it simultaneously suffer death from a number of factors-
-asphyxiation. Spiders don't last long without oxygen; if they can drown easily, I'd imagine they need a constant supply of oxygen
-cook in the sun
-freeze solid in the shade
-crushed by passing toolbag
-overwhelming homesickness
-b
I just read about this... (Score:3, Informative)
Kirk Shireman, deputy shuttle program manager, says that while only one spider is visible, that doesn't mean the other is missing. 'We don't believe he has escaped the payload. I am sure we will find him spinning a web somewhere in the next few days.'"
This is why I don't trust any form of "Action" news.
Cable TV Viewers Take Notice (Score:3, Funny)
This has "Sci Fi Channel Original" (Movie) written all over it.
Obvious conclusion.... (Score:5, Funny)
People, remember, this is s rigorous scientific experiment based on literally billions of dollars worth of equipment.
If you look at this scientifically, the obvious conclusion is that spiders in space have a 50% chance of spontaneously developing teleportation powers. This vital experiment should put to rest all the loonies who claim space can't do that to people, we have hard proof now.
The more pressing question is why didn't NASA talk about the gecko heat vision experiments in the next chamber over?
-Charlie
Explanation (Score:5, Funny)
The spider left after it found a robots.txt file.
Re:It's simple! (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, its off filming the sequel to Snakes on a Plane... Spiders on the Shuttle