GMU:Space Is The Place/projects: Difference between revisions

This project began by following the 'Butterflies In Space' project sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute; Vanessa Cardui larvae that hatched six days earlier flew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station. Children from American elementary schools were encouraged to take part by creating their own butterfly habitats in the class room, to watch the butterflies live and grow and die over the course of 25 days; the greatest variable being gravity. The second was possibly the 'payload', the artificial habitat taken aboard to house the larvae. The difference is not so much in its content but with the container itself. A 'flight certified scientific insert' was developed at BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado. "Our…competency is enabling the conduct of space life sciences research in a highly regulated environment in such a way as to make the complicated process completely transparent to the investigator." This appeared a very different object from the terrariums and disposable plastic food containers the school children were promoted to use, but their aims were comparable.