Pity the
space spiders and the webs they weave.
A pair of
orb weaver spiders flying aboard the International Space Station have fought a
battle with weightlessness and lost.
When
astronauts took a peek at the spiders' webs on Monday, they found a tangled
concoction that was a far cry from the elegant symmetrical, creations of their
eight-legged brethren on Earth.
"The web
was more or less three-dimensional and it looked like it was all over the
inside of the spider hab," said NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus, the space
station's science officer. "We took some pictures of it, so hopefully they will
turn out."
"So it was
more of a tangled, disorganized-looking web rather than the standard, like
'Charlotte's Web,' kind of web?" asked Mission Control. After all, the
fictional spider Charlotte from the children's book "Charlotte's Web" by E.B.
White was an orb weaver spider, too.
"There was no
symmetry that was noticeable in it," Magnus replied.
Despite
weaving a tangled web, the spiders appeared to be doing well. The spiders launched
to the space station with a supply of tasty fruit flies for food aboard NASA's
shuttle Endeavour last Friday as part of a science experiment to promote
interest in science and technology among students between grades K-12 on Earth.
Painted lady butterfly larvae were also included as a separate part of the
experiment.
Students
will compare the space butterflies' lifecycle and how the spiders weave webs
and feed in weightlessness with similar spiders and butterflies on Earth.
Meanwhile,
Endeavour astronauts began the first
of four spacewalks outside the space station today to maintain the orbiting
lab clean metal grit out from a damaged solar wing gear. Endeavour ferried
Magnus to the station as part of a planned 15-day mission to deliver a
new bathroom, kitchen, gym, two extra bedrooms and a recycling system that
turns urine into drinking water so the research facility can double the number
of astronauts that can live aboard.
So far,
there's been only one problem. Astronauts could only find one of the space
spiders inside their habitat.
"We're not
missing a spider," space station flight director Holly Ridings assured
reporters Monday, adding that - since it's NASA - there is a backup spider with
his own designated area. "The way it was explained to me, he came out of his
bedroom and may be into the living room of the house."
The wayward
spider is definitely not running amuck inside the space station, NASA said.
"We don't
believe that it's escaped the overall payload enclosure," said Kirk Shireman,
NASA's deputy station program manager. "I'm sure we'll find him spinning a web
sometime here in the next few days."
NASA is
providing live coverage of Endeavour's STS-126 mission on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's
mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
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