The "instant pets" known as Sea Monkeys have been everywhere -- even outer space -- and its maker Exploratoy is capitalizing on their journeys with two new space-themed toys displayed at the recent American International Toy Fair.
| Sea Monkeys |
| Sea Monkeys have been painstakingly bred so that the brine shrimp can survive up to two years with proper care. |
No significant differences were observed in the developments of the control group of Sea Monkeys and the batch that went into space on the Discovery. |
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"Sea Monkeys" went on the market in 1960, and for years the brine shrimp were most likely to be found in mail order ads in the back of comic books. In October 1998, however, astronaut
John Glenn made his second trip into space on the Shuttle Discovery -- and Sea Monkeys went with him.
The experiment was the brainchild of Pat Palazzolo -- a Pittsburgh teacher who was herself a finalist in the 1985 Teacher in Space competition -- and her seventh-grade biology class. Their experiment was one of two winning entries in a NASA contest encouraging student involvement in space science.
The class needed to find a living thing that could be loaded onto the shuttle in the summer and not die before launch in the fall. While brainstorming, one student remembered Sea Monkeys, which are sold as dry egg packets and that hatch after being mixed with water.
Of course, it's not the first time brine shrimp have flown in shuttles.
The students developed an experiment testing for differences between Sea Monkey eggs that went to space and those that never left Earth. A batch of Sea Monkey eggs were spent nine days in orbit on the Discovery and were hatched eight weeks after their return.
This year, Exploratoy plans to commemorate the voyage with the "Space Shuttle Adventure", a shuttle-shaped Sea Monkey tank. The tank has a built in bubbler to oxygenate the water and a light for viewing as well as "nighttime space travel."
A second space-themed tank -- "Mars Mania" -- features a miniature martian landscape in a jar, with craters, volcanoes and a small spacecraft with astronaut. Both kits include magnifying glasses for better appreciation of the tiny shrimp.
The tanks will be available in June, and will retail for about $20.
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