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Space Fish: ISS Aquatic Habitat Delivered By HTV-3
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."
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.
Where all fish are flying fish.
p>I'm surprised the first post regarding a Japanese aquarium module didn't go straight to the obvious end involving sushi rice and ponzu sauce?
If you took the fish out of the aquarium, would it be able to swim through the air? How fast? Could it steer?
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.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
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.
Livingston?
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Livingston
Aquatic critters can be one link in a combined waste treatment / hydro-ponic growing system. I've heard that a cubic meter of sea water is the most prolific growing medium on earth. I'm interested in the downstream outcomes of science like this.
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.
seamonkeys
Let the supernerdage commence!
"Well, technically you're not weightless -- you're microbouyed in microgravity."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
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".
I hope that the next step after this is taking a cat into space in a properly-designed cage. (You don't want it loose!) Make sure that at least part of the cage is lined with something that the cat can grip so that it has the choice between clinging to the side of the cage and moving around in the inside and see how it adapts. Yes, I know that waste disposal will be a problem, but it's one that we'll have to solve sooner or later anyway.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
So long and thanks for all the ... fish.
TFA says there is a webcam. Anyone know if there will be a way for us not on NASA's payroll to watch?
I was wondering if they were babblefish.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
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 dissolved oxygen; dirty water goes out with fish droppings and nasty stale dissolved co2. Any bubbles that make it into this closed loop will move towards the exit at the same speed as the water flow, so the key is to make sure that you don't introduce any "really large" bubbles. That's easy.
Just for clarification, we have hardly been waiting for fish in space. Some of us saw them way back when. Getaway Special Payload G332 included the study of brine shrimp. This was a project from the a little high school in Houston called Booker T. Washington. In was developed in the early 80's and flew 1986. Colombia no less, and the last flight before Challenger.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
On the tails of last year's discovery of "ocean like" water in comets [http://io9.com/5847004/comet-discovered-with-ocean+like-water-inside-of-it], this is a logical step. Should we not be looking for "habitable planets" but "habitable orbits"? Which, I suppose, would make every solar system habitable that had either a potentially deflected comet or a budget for fish aquariums ?
Gently reply
The first generation of goldfish to end-up in a space toilet ! This is one small fin for Goldy - one giant leap for Goldy-kind !
maybe if they align the axis of the aquarium parallel to the axis of the moving spacestation, the 'lil fish can push the ISS into a higher orbit?
Alien Versus Predator Versus Jaws
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
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 water changes? How do you get a dead fish out? You can't open the aquarium?
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.