Plan to send Baby Squids and Tardigrades In space
Recently, NASA is planning to send creatures called Baby Squids and Tardigrades to the International Space Station. Reaching these creatures in space will help in various scientific studies.
Baby squids and Tardigrades are also known as water bears. These organisms are one of the most complex structurally flexible organisms found on Earth.
The Tardigrades has 8 legs and looks like a bear and also has 4 body segments. The Tardigrade can only be seen with the help of a microscope because it is only half a millimeter long.
Behavior of ‘Tardigrades’ in space flight
‘Tardigrades’ can survive on Earth in complex conditions like high pressure, temperature and radiation.
Importance of Study:
- Host-Microbe Relationship:
- On Earth it will help find ways to save the complex relationships between animals and beneficial microbes and even ensure better human health and well-being.
- This will help space agencies develop better measures to protect astronauts from adverse host-microbe changes on long-duration missions.
- Long Space Flights:
- Studying tardigrades will allow scientists to study their hardiness closely and possibly identify the genes that make them highly resilient. Such studies will help in safer and longer space flights.
- A recent similar research on zebrafish demonstrated how induced ‘hibernation’ can protect humans from the elements of space, especially radiation, during spaceflight.
International Space Station
- It is a man-made artificial satellite located in the ‘Low-Earth Orbit’ of the Earth. Humans can also live on this satellite. It was launched in the year 1998 in ‘Low-Earth Orbit’.
- It orbits the Earth in about 92 In this way it completes 15.5 revolutions of the earth every day.
- This ‘International Space Station’ program has been built as a joint project by the participating space agencies of 5 These major five space agencies are: NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).
- The ownership and use of this station is governed through intergovernmental treaties and agreements.
- It serves as a kind of space environmental research laboratory. In this, crew members conduct experiments related to biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other disciplines.
- Its station is expected to be operational by the year A few days ago China launched an unmanned module of its permanent space station, which it plans to complete by the end of 2022.
- The module, named ‘Tianhe’ or ‘Harmony of the Heavens’, was launched from China’s largest cargo rocket Long March 5
- India is also working in the field of building its own space station in ‘Low Earth Orbit’ to conduct microgravity related experiments in space in future 5 to 7
Source – The Hindu
