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."

Comments

Sounds.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Looking forward to this one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not that new...

Moray Star Boats - since 1984.

Aquaculture and hydroponics

[j-stroy]

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.

Re:Aquaculture and hydroponics

[Anonymous Coward]

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 the most when the pressures are the highest or fall apart.

The next step

[techno-vampire]

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.

Re:The next step

[Y-Crate]

Cats in zero G? It's been done.

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:My question is:

[hvm2hvm]

How about dolphins for example? They might be able to live normally in space