GMU:Space Is The Place/projects/Vanessa Cardui in Space: Difference between revisions

The 'butterflies in space' project was sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute in the fall of 2009. Several Vanessa Cardui larvae that hatched six days earlier flew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station. The experiment would examine the biological development and behaviors of the species Vanessa Cardui for the duration of their lifespan in outer space.  

The butterflies in space mission used 'life in space' as a theme to engage students to conduct scientific investigation by constructing their own habitats in the classroom to study the life cycle of the butterfly. The greatest variable was gravity, but both aimed to contain life and further speculate how knowledge gained might apply to humans traveling farther into the solar system. A migration to space is at a level relatively few can appreciate. Non humans biological organism were the first beings to experience the conditions of space for the purpose of biotechnological research. The effects of the expected space vacuum, wide temperature extremes, and cosmic radiation of the space frontier effect how living systems might adapt to and function in the weightless of orbital space.  

STS-129, the 31st shuttle mission to the ISS was slated to be the final shuttle crew rotation flight to or from the Space Station.

The butterflies in space experiment concluded December 10.09.