What is the aim of TARDIS?

Why should we send dry aquatic invertebrates into space, an environment that certainly is not normal for these animals? There are many answers to this question. One would be: to see if these animals, as the first ever, are able to cope with the extremely dry conditions of deep vacuum and the harmful solar and galactic radiation up there. In the past, several biologists have suggested that tardigrades may be one of the few animals that have a chance to come back alive after a trip in real space. Finally we will be able to find out if this is true.

At a more mechanistic biological level, exposure of organisms to space conditions will reveal how living cells react to the potentially very stressful impact of space parameters. And organisms that can handle the damaging space parameters will be important sources of knowledge for how to generate the space ecosystems that will be necessary for the more permanent human establishments in space that is envisaged today.

The TARDIS experiment consists of two sets of samples: one set exposed to both space vacuum and solar radiation, and another set exposed to space vacuum only. All tardigrade specimens included in the study are in a dry, anhydrobiotic state. Species included are: Richtersius coronifer, Milnesium tardigradum, Echiniscus testudo, Ramazzottius oberhaeuseri. These are all known to be very tolerant to desiccation.

Once on the ground again, these samples will be analysed for survival and reproductive potential, and for damage on DNA.


Monday, September 17, 2007

Tardigrades in orbit!


Last Friday, the FOTON-M3 satelite was successfully sent into orbit, and the Biopan-6 platform was opened, exposing tardigrades of the TARDIS experiment to open space. The satelite will now orbit the earth at a 90 min. interval until 26 September, when the FOTON capsule hopefully lands in an area near the Kazakhstan-Russian border. Read more about the FOTON-M3 mission at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQDB13J6F_index_0.html
While waiting for the tardigrades to complete their trip in space, you may want to find out some more about tardigrades. Here are some great sites on the web:
Tardigrade Newsletter
Martin Mach's Monthly Journal on Tardigrada
Goldstein Lab
Upplagd av på

5 comments:

Dissertation help said...

Its great to see that people are sharing quite profitable information with each other and now we can move our selves to a new era.
Thesis Writing

January 24, 2011 at 10:12 AM
izle said...

artı 18 izle artı 18 dizisi canan izle canan dizisi film izle

January 26, 2011 at 11:52 PM
Nichole said...

I like the idea of bringing animals to space. If I am not mistaken, there had been an animal that was brought in space before, but I'm not sure. Locksmiths in Bournemouth always use the latest technology providing mobile key cutting services ensuring that keys can be cut on site.

June 14, 2011 at 8:39 AM
Alice said...

TARDIS is a cool stuff and even if its just fictional, it looks real. And it is also real that Igoe will provide help on how to insulate gable wall.

June 14, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Nichole said...

What a great invention you got there. However, since it's orbiting around the earth, how can the people on earth view what you have discovered from the outer space?

Nichole of Window Blind

July 11, 2011 at 8:52 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)