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Spider Missing After Trip To Space Station

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the lost-in-space dept.

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."

8 of 507 comments (clear)

  1. Not necessarily by Moraelin · · 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.

    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
    1. Re:Not necessarily by theinvisibleguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I had a bunch of spider eggs in a jar when I was younger, after they hatched they kept getting smaller in number without leaving anything behind. You could definitely tell which spiders were eating the others since they were about twice their previous size.

    2. Re:Not necessarily by Reziac · · Score: 3, 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.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  2. Dupe from 1973 by Yossarian45793 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The spider webs in space experiment was already tried in 1973 aboard Skylab.

  3. Spiders in space... by Sergey23 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hypothetically let us say that the spider somehow ended up outside the space shuttle. The question is what would happen to a spider if we left it floating in space for a week or two? Considering that they're cold blooded and their circulatory system is rather basic and non-pressurized (since all the organs bathe in a pool of copper based blood) will the spider die? And, if so, from what?

  4. Re:Where oh where? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In Hawaii, only the tourists are scared of our big-as-your-palm cane spiders. Everyone else doesn't mind having them in the house because they eat all the other bugs.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  5. Re:Where oh where? by brokenhorse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is a shamless plug to my photography site but I taken some hardocre photos of spiders, wasps and mantises over the years. If you have a fear of spiders and wasps, this might be the gentle exposure you need.

  6. Re:Where oh where? by rale,+the · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How about an asian giant hornet? I think any fear of them would be justified.