Space Fish: ISS Aquatic Habitat Delivered By HTV-3 68
astroengine writes "Yes, it's the moment we've all (secretly) been waiting for: Fish In Space! But before you go getting too excited and start asking the big questions — like: if there's a bubble in a microgravity aquarium, what happens if the fish falls into it? Let's ponder that for a minute... — it's worth pointing out that the fish aren't actually in space right now (their habitat has just been delivered to the space station by the unmanned Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle 'Kounotori 3') and this fishy experiment isn't just to see how fish enjoy swimming upside down, there's some serious science behind it."
Looking forward to this one. (Score:1)
I would love to learn more about how Fish can live in space and even what changes will need to be made for a tank to work in space. This is a new experament idea and one I am very interested in seeing explored and seeing how it turns out.
Re:Looking forward to this one. (Score:5, Informative)
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Not that new...
Moray Star Boats [alioth.net] - since 1984.
Re:Looking forward to this one. (Score:5, Informative)
In particular, goldfish [archive.org] and newts flew on STS-65 (1994). Not sure if complete life-cycle experiments have been done before. Some quick searching turns up this speculation [google.com] (Google Books preview) as of 2003 that fish will soon become the first vertebrate to live a complete life cycle in space.
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Great. Goldfish and Newts. Pretty soon everyone will have flown in space except me.
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That's how the government works. Everyone can get benefits except you.
Right side up (Score:1)
I'm just wondering if they'd all swim with the same side "up" or if some will swim upside down or sideways or up or some other obtuse orientation. Their swim bladders wouldn't know which way to stay "up".
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Please define "up".
Away from Earth's gravitational field.
Re:Right side up (Score:5, Funny)
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I would love to learn more about how Fish can live in space and even what changes will need to be made for a tank to work in space. This is a new experament idea and one I am very interested in seeing explored and seeing how it turns out.
I would love to learn more about how Fish can live in space and even what changes will need to be made for their tool using habits. Also, I would like to see their mathematical formulas postulating fish advancement in the 21st century. We'd be better off with pigs in space.
The ISS (Score:2, Funny)
Where all fish are flying fish.
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Where all fish are flying fish.
Where a tuna can move at thousands of miles per hour. Think of the sushi.
Sashimi in space (Score:3)
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Didn't you read? It was delivered by the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle "koipond".
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I figured they were gearing up to grow and harvest whales in space, where nobody can stop them.
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And how long would it survive trying to breath air?
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And how long would it survive trying to breath air?
Long enough to answer the first three questions.
Re:My question is: (Score:4, Interesting)
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Probably comically long enough to hit all the explode space station buttons as it flails around uncontrollably.
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And what kind of dumbass thinks that zero-g would enable a fish to "swim" thru air? Is zero-g going to increase the resistance of the air enough to...
ah nevermind. Somedays it doesn't pay to get out of bed.
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[...W]hat kind of dumbass thinks that zero-g would enable a fish to "swim" thru air?
The same kind of dumbass that considers that impulse is impulse, regardless of it's under 0G, 1G, or 42G of gravitational pull.
What microgravity doesn't do is make air thicker, but what microgravity /does/ do is make mass just mass, and not weight.
Which means a fish could indeed, swim in air. In the absence of gravity to hold things down, one could simply flap their arms in the air to propel themselves forward, if slowly.
Likewise, so could a fish flap its fins and propel itself slowly through air, in the ab
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"Likewise, so could a fish flap its fins and propel itself slowly through air, in the absence of gravity to cancel out the tiny force imparted on flapping fins against air."
However, fish are used to flapping against water, something with far more mass. It's likely that should they find themselves in air they'd rapidly flop around and achieve virtually no propulsion at all.
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Flopping requires something to flop *against*. On earth fish "flop" because their propulsion is insufficient to fight gravity in the absence of water's buoyancy. In microgravity buoyancy is not an issue so all their control surfaces will work more-or-less normally in air (sans viscosity effects), just to less effect. Take something like a lungfish or whale that wouldn't suffocate in air and they could probably maneuver adequately once they acclimated to the dramatically slower response times.
Heck, equip
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Take something like a lungfish or whale that wouldn't suffocate in air and they could probably maneuver adequately once they acclimated to the dramatically slower response times.
Heck, equip them with large, low-mass fin extensions and they'd probably be able to maneuver a LOT better than humans who never evolved to navigate in a fluid environment.
Oh yes, do please apply for a research grant for this.
Forget segways and monorails. I plan on zipping around my future space station home on a bionically-enhanced dolphin!
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Maybe not long enough to learn that the correct usage is "breathe".
I guess I deserved that. I'm a little pedantic myself sometimes.
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[W]hat kind of dumbass thinks that zero-g would enable a fish to "swim" thru air? Is zero-g going to increase the resistance of the air enough to...
ah nevermind. Somedays it doesn't pay to get out of bed.
If that half-sentence is the best refutation you can shit out, then please, "Dr," just stay in bed.
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If you took the fish out of the aquarium, would it be able to swim through the air? How fast? Could it steer?
I think we all know the technology we need [lulzimg.com] to answer these important questions. Let's get to work.
And then... (Score:4, Funny)
Sure. Now it's just regular fish. Next it will be sharks, then sharks with lasers. It will be all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
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Sure. Now it's just regular fish. Next it will be sharks, then sharks with lasers. It will be all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
Lasers in space? Sounds like the plot of a movie.
Is that actor Ronald Regan still available?
Re:And then... (Score:5, Funny)
Is that actor Ronald Regan still available?
Nope, apparently he got some kind of management job instead.
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Sure. Now it's just regular fish. Next it will be sharks, then sharks with lasers. It will be all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
These are _sharks_ we're talking about here. Not just angry sea bass. These lasers will be big. It will be all fun and games until someone loses a _head_
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Sounds. (Score:5, Interesting)
Sound should be able to push bubbles around to prevent build-up of large bubbles.
The only problem then would be the fish spazzing out at the sound waves.
So grid to constantly cycle the water around in a twist to eliminate will probably be the other solution.
Their solution sounds similar to the latter, but obviously far more complex than my simple example.
I expected a sphere over a cuboid. Or even a cone. But hey, I am just guessing. They likely done hundreds of simulations to get the right system with the most space.
Good luck to the experiment. Shall be interesting.
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Send up Bettas, and they'll be manipulating bubbles themselves.
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The problem is, constant high levels of sound are harmful to fish.
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Right in the pet store it says, "Do not tap on glass"
What'll be the name of the fish? (Score:1)
Livingston?
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Livingston
Aquaculture and hydroponics (Score:5, Interesting)
Also am reminded of an old pulp sc-fi short story that took the form of letters between a Mars bio-dome colonist and the manufacturer of the living bio dome system... they kept adding critters to the dome to try and balance the eco-system, with predictable and silly results.
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I always remember what one of my biology professors said about these sort of biodome experiments: "life finds a way to live, unless it doesn't but either way, there is only one way to find out." What he meant was that those experiments should go on until they are so unbalanced that they threaten the human occupants with imminent death, but those without human occupants should be allowed to run until everything dies. The reason is that nature can surprise you with the way things adapt and you often learn t
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Also am reminded of an old pulp sc-fi short story that took the form of letters between a Mars bio-dome colonist and the manufacturer of the living bio dome system... they kept adding critters to the dome to try and balance the eco-system, with predictable and silly results.
Sounds like an interesting story... got any more info? Like a title, or something to google? I tried googling a few keywords but just found your post...
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I don't remember the author.. it would have been in an "Asimov" or "Analog" and I think I read it in an anthology too. The decayed plant matter in the habitat is making it a little funky, so after what begins as a polite correspondence with the support rep.. the lone colonist is told to add mushroom spores and as the situation deteriorates further, beetles (to eat the mushrooms), birds, a cat, a predatory hawk, a miniature deer and so on.. the tone of the letters gets increasingly manic as the habitat faun
they'll look like this (Score:1)
seamonkeys [webs.com]
Technically, electric force is my lover, not Rosie (Score:1)
Let the supernerdage commence!
"Well, technically you're not weightless -- you're microbouyed in microgravity."
The next step (Score:5, Interesting)
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There've been other mammals in space before, though not cats. The third Spacelab mission [wikipedia.org] (1985) took two monkeys and 24 rats in cages up.
Re:The next step (Score:4, Funny)
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As may be simulated planetside by strapping a piece of buttered toast to the back of a cat...
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Re:The next step (Score:4, Interesting)
Cats in zero G? It's been done [youtube.com].
I imagine the ISS would be shredded all the way to the cold, dead vacuum of space about an hour after the arrival of the first catstronaut.
Re:The next step (Score:5, Funny)
Place one average sized dog in space with 0 velocity. Place one average sized house cat in space with 0 velocity, 3 meters apart from dog. Observe results.
What about dolphins too (Score:2)
So long and thanks for all the ... fish.
I was wondering... (Score:2)
I was wondering if they were babblefish.
Cheers,
Dave
Fishcam feed? (Score:3)
TFA says there is a webcam. Anyone know if there will be a way for us not on NASA's payroll to watch?
bubbles aren't the real problem (Score:1)
If you're worried about bubbles, then you probably don't understand the real problem: Fish remove dissolved oxygen and add carbon dioxide. On Earth, co2 finds its way to the surface of the water and mixes with regular air. In space, if you haven't solved the problem of getting dissolved co2 and fish poop out of the water, then you're just going to end up with a bunch of dead fish.
The simplest solution is to set up a one-inlet, one-outlet filtration system: Fresh water and fish food comes in with nice fresh
STS-61-C (Score:1)
Changes Search for Life Parameters (Score:2)
Another Hollywood Cross over in the making! (Score:1)
HOW? (Score:2)
On Earth, it's relatively simple to maintain an aquarium. In space... I hae no idea.
Aquariums use several things:
-Filters (impeller based canister filter will work in space.)
-bubblers for dissolved gases.
-food
The biggest question for me, is how do you get good gasses in (O2, CO2 if a planted aqurium) and bad gasses out of the aquarium. On earth, the gasses interact with the surface. In space there is no surface. You can't just pump more gasses in without raising the pressure. What do you do with ammonia and