Posted on by Ken Kremer

Butterflynauts Emerge from Cocoons on ISS

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Four “butterflynauts” have emerged on the International Space Station. They are part of a suitcase sized educational experiment that was rocketed to space on Nov. 16 on space shuttle Atlantis as part of the STS-129 mission. Students of all ages and the public are invited to follow the tiny crew’s development from larvae to adult butterflies in the microgravity of space.

In over 100 classrooms across the U.S., students have set up habitats and are replicating the space experiment. Their objective is to compare the growth and behavior of ground-based butterfly larvae and adult butterflies with those living in the microgravity environment of space. New pictures and videos and Powerpoint slides are available almost daily.

A free Butterflies in Space teacher’s guide can be downloaded from BioEd Online at the Butterflies in Space website here. The project is sponsored by National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

Initial results show that there appears to be no difference in the development rates of these butterflies in a microgravity environment as compared to Earth’s gravity, which is a fairly significant finding. While microgravity environment has obvious impacts on human health and physiology, relatively little is known about how microgravity whould effect human growth and development. While there are major differences between humans and butterflies, basic cellular divisions in follow similar processes. Therefore, the success of the butterfly experiment in space indicates that a human embryo could potentially survive and develop normally in space even in the absence of gravity.

8 Replies to “Butterflynauts Emerge from Cocoons on ISS”

  2. I have the odd feeling that there are more butterflies in this spot than I have seen in the whole summer….

  3. Living in space must be miserable and frightening for the poor butterflies, because they know instinctively that they can fly but it won’t work properly in zero G.

  4. This is an example of problems with manned space flight and the ISS. I am sure there is science to be gleaned in the study of butterflies in space, but at one hell of a cost. I’d much rather there be more deep space probes and orbiting telescopes that tell us more about the big U.

    LC

  6. A very interesting experiment – the butterfly is Cynthia cardui or Cynthia virginiensis if the American species.

    Not remarked on is the fact that all have fully expanded wings.. When the imago breaks loose from the chrysalis the wings are all packed in a heap. The butterfly then climbs up a stork of grass or similar and pumps a fluid into the wings through the veins. This then hardens so the butterfly can actually fly. Normally gravity helps in this process and it take very little interferance to prevent it happening correctly. (A crumpled wing often results.)

  7. I would have to side with Lawrence Crowell on this topic. A neat little experiment, but at what cost? Resources could be much better spent on deep space probes and robotic landers(Titan, Enceclacus) IMHO.

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