Keeping Animals in Space

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Keeping Animals in Space
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Habitat

• An animals habitat consists of the natural
  environment in which it lives.
• In order to take animals into space we must
  artificially provide the animal with everything
  it needs to survive.
• This closed environment becomes an artificial
  habitat.

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Habitat

• The four major components of a habitat are
• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• Space
• In space we also need to provide things that are
  taken for granted on Earth like air!

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Habitat

• Generally the simpler the form of life the easier
  it is to keep in space.
• There is significant engineering involved in
  designing animal habitats for space.
• They must provide everything the animal requires
  while being kept to a minimum size and weight.

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Animals on the Space Shuttle

• All of the animals that have flown on the Space
  Shuttle have been housed in the middeck area or
  in a laboratory module fitted into the cargo bay.

Space Shuttle Middeck
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Animals on the Space Shuttle

• Within the middeck there are 42 lockers that can
  be used to carry experimental payloads
• When rodents are launched on the Space Shuttle
  one to three of these lockers are reconfigured
  with Animal Enclosure Modules (AEMs)

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Class Brainstorm

• Imagine you are designing a habitat to carry 5
  adult rats into space aboard the Space Shuttle.
• The habitat must fit within a middeck locker the
  size of which is shown, measurements are in
  inches (1 inch 2.54 cm)

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Class Brainstorm

• As a class brainstorm what the rats will need to
  survive in the closed environment of their
  habitat inside the locker.
• Keep in mind they are in microgravity, what does
  that mean for how the rats move around, what
  about food and water?

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Habitat Design

• In groups of 4 or 5 come up with a quick habitat
  design for the rats
• Highlight the major points and show roughly how
  it will all fit into such a small space.
• Following this we will look at NASAs actual
  Animal Enclosure Module and you can see if you
  missed anything.

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NASAs AEM

• The AEM is used for studying the influence of
  microgravity on rodents.
• It can carry 5 adult rats or 8 adult mice and has
  flown on 23 Space Shuttle missions.

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NASAs AEM

• The AEM is a self-contained habitat providing its
  occupants with living space, food, water,
  ventilation and lighting.
• The unit has a waste management system designed
  to keep the animals separate from their waste and
  to prevent these by products and food crumbs from
  escaping into the Space Shuttle environment.

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NASAs AEM

• The module itself is composed of a stainless
  steel grid cage module.
• As the rats will be in microgravity they will be
  floating around just like the astronauts on
  board, the wire mesh gives them something to grip
  onto.

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NASAs AEM

• The AEM remains in the storage locker during take
  off and landing
• During a mission the AEM can be removed from the
  locker and the astronauts can observe or
  photograph the animals through a clear cover.

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NASAs AEM

• Cabin air is exchanged with the AEM through a
  filter system.
• Four fans cause air to suck waste products into a
  collection filter.
• Special filters prevent any microbiological
  escape into the cabin atmosphere.

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NASAs AEM

• Treated charcoal within the unit confines animal
  odours within the closed system so that
  astronauts dont have to put up with rat smell!
• Woodchip bedding like used in rat cages on Earth
  is no good in microgravity.

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NASAs AEM

• Four internal lamps provide lighting that runs on
  a 12 hour day night cycle.
• Standard gravity feed water bottles dont work in
  space so water is provided through pressurised
  water containers which the astronauts can refill
  during the mission.
• Dry food in a bowl is no good either, instead
  special compressed rodent food bars molded into a
  rectangular shape are placed in plates inside the
  cage.

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NASAs AEM

• The AEM is 24.50 x 43.69 x 51.05 cm and weighs
  approximately 27.2 kg (with food, water, and
  animals).
• It requires 35.5 Watts of power from the Space
  Shuttle, less than a normal light bulb!
• The temperature of the AEM is not controlled but
  is dependent on the temperature of the middeck.

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Research Animal Holding Facility

• More complicated habitats exist such as the
  Research Animal Holding Facility carried in the
  SpaceLab module in the cargo bay of the Shuttle.

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Research Animal Holding Facility

• The RAHF can carry up to 24 rats or four squirrel
  monkeys.
• Unlike the AEM the animals can be removed from
  the RAHF and handled for tissue or fluid sampling
  or administration of treatment.

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Animals on the ISS

• The Space Station Biological Research Program is
  the main life sciences research to be undertaken
  on the ISS.
• Currently there are plans to build habitats for
  rodents, fish, quail, fruit flies as well as
  facilities for growing plants.

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Keeping Animals in Space

• There have been a wide variety of animals sent
  into space and every animal requires slightly
  different conditions.
• The challenge with keeping animals in space is to
  provide them with a comfortable artificial
  habitat to undertake study.

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Future Plans

• Current animal research in space is restricted to
  taking animals up in the Space Shuttle and ISS
  for relatively short stays.
• Future plans involve breeding animals in space to
  look at the effect of microgravity over multiple
  generations.

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Future Plans

• Even further into the future may be the
  possibility of creating complete artificial
  eco-systems, particularly to aid life support and
  provide food for long duration stays by humans in
  space.
• What are some of the challenges you can think of
  with this ambitious idea?
• How could we overcome them?