GMU:Space Is The Place/projects/Vanessa Cardui in Space

These are the plans and models for a simulated version of that habitat.

keywords: space, simulation, artificial habitat, habitat within habitat, controlled environment, containment, migration alien

By 'participating' in the experiment myself, situating the larvae into an 'artificial habitat', I was in a position to observe first hand the lifespan of the butterflies in a way similar to the school children. I thought the butterflies were relatively resilient considering their predicament. As environmental sensors, the butterflies soon revealed the shortcomings of such a situation, and I wondered how well the fact that this was so totally under acknowledged was going over with the students. How great was our our inability to recognize the needs of another species but of our own.

Migration to space is at a level relatively even fewer can appreciate. Thinking about this distance and this 'alien-ness', I wondered about these artificial habitats; anything that has been modified or made by people, habitats have been constructed and employed to domesticate and house, observe, experiment, and transport life. How do we fabricate this ideal place in relation to ourselves, to others, the environment, in essence, in relation to nature, -something we have gradually constructed as being outside of or other than ourselves.

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Launch date November 16.09.09
STS-129 mission to ISS aboard space shuttle Atlantis
Vanessa Cardui animal astronauts in space
A project by NASA & NSBRI [national space biomedical research institute]
Research Applications:
Small organism study
General Features:
Passive gas exchange with cabin air (o2, co2, rH)
Habitats packaged to provide temperature, rH and experiment-specific sensors for environmental monitoring
Thermally controlled time course experiments
Imaging capabilities with near real-time downlink
Manual or automated config. control for activation and termination
Fluorescent, LED, electroluminescent and infared lighting available
Multiple levels of containment meet NASA safety reqs.

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