Have you ever wondered what would happen to Sea
Monkeys in space? The seventh graders at Fort
Couch Middle School in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania,
USA, did, and they set out to design an experiment to
send Sea Monkeys into space. After designing and
submitting an experiment to NASA, the American
Space Agency, the Sea Monkeys went up in the Space
Shuttle Discovery on October 29, 1998, with U.S.
Senator John Glenn!
What are Sea Monkeys doing in space? Many of the
experiments were designed to see the effects of space
travel on small creatures. One experiment studied the Sea
Monkeys’ ability to live for long periods of time in a type of
suspended animation. Another experiment studied the
bacteria which lived in the tanks of Sea Monkeys. And yet
another wanted to test the Sea Monkeys reactions to
weightlessness, gravitational forces upon re-entry, and
temperature fluctuations in the Space Shuttle.
What happens when a Sea Monkey goes into space?
During the STS-95 Mission on the Space Shuttle
Discovery in October, 1998, the Sea Monkeys travelled
almost 7 million kilometres (or 3.8 million miles)
miles, endured three G’s of gravitational force on re-
entry, and spent almost nine days in space with the
astronauts. They have
travelled on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, the USML-1
Columbia, and the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and spent
time in the Mir Space Station.
What are Sea Monkeys doing in space? Many of the
experiments were designed to see the effects of space
travel on small creatures. One experiment studied the Sea
Monkeys’ ability to live for long periods of time in a type of
suspended animation. Another experiment studied the
bacteria which lived in the tanks of Sea Monkeys. And yet
another wanted to test the Sea Monkeys reactions to
weightlessness, gravitational forces upon re-entry, and
temperature fluctuations in the Space Shuttle. They were packaged in these containers full of tubes,
seen here on the left.
What happens when a Sea Monkey returns from
space? Nothing. The students in Pennsylvania found
no differences between the Sea Monkeys that
remained on the ground and those who travelled in
space with the astronauts! One of the experimenters
on the Mir Space Station did note that the algae didn’t
fare as well. Upon its return, he described the algae
as “clumpy.”
Have you ever wondered what would happen to Sea
Monkeys in space? The seventh graders at Fort
Couch Middle School in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania,
USA, did, and they set out to design an experiment to
send Sea Monkeys into space. After designing and
submitting an experiment to NASA, the American
Space Agency, the Sea Monkeys went up in the Space
Shuttle Discovery on October 29, 1998, with U.S.
Senator John Glenn!
What are Sea Monkeys doing in space? Many of the
experiments were designed to see the effects of space
travel on small creatures. One experiment studied the Sea
Monkeys’ ability to live for long periods of time in a type of
suspended animation. Another experiment studied the
bacteria which lived in the tanks of Sea Monkeys. And yet
another wanted to test the Sea Monkeys reactions to
weightlessness, gravitational forces upon re-entry, and
temperature fluctuations in the Space Shuttle.
What are Sea Monkeys doing in space? Many of the
experiments were designed to see the effects of space
travel on small creatures. One experiment studied the Sea
Monkeys’ ability to live for long periods of time in a type of
suspended animation. Another experiment studied the
bacteria which lived in the tanks of Sea Monkeys. And yet
another wanted to test the Sea Monkeys reactions to
weightlessness, gravitational forces upon re-entry, and
temperature fluctuations in the Space Shuttle. They were packaged in these containers full of tubes,
seen here on the left.