Team Space Sheerios

Animals, Plants, and Microbes in Space

Scientists’ Overall goal - to get a better understanding of how space and spaceflight affects        astronauts 

Animal Biology Overview

Goal: to know the techniques the animals use to adapt to spaceflight and gravity

Past Experiment of Mice in spaceflight

1. 37 days in microgravity
2. Include both old and young female mice

Findings:

• Mice did normal things - feeding, self-grooming, interacting with other mice
• Quickly adapted to weightless circumstances by anchoring themselves to the habitat walls
• Mice explored their entire habitats
• Younger mice more physically active

Note: Need to search more information for “race tracking” behavior (running laps around the cage) and increased blood flow of the rodents’ extra activity. Need to test the experiment without the cage, which human beings would be experiencing in space.

Mice Experiment in spaceflight

Cell and Molecular Biology overview

Goal - to explore how the stress of space environment influence the genetic and molecular mechanism 

Potential Considerations:

1. Any changes in genes and protein expression, DNA functions, cellular structures, and cell-to-cell interactions?

Microbiology Overview

Goal: understanding how microbial species grow and interact with each other

Potential Considerations

1. How long duration spaceflight environments influence microbial reproduction, biodegradation, and nitrogen fixation?

Past Experiment of (GRAS) probiotic microbes

Findings:

• Benefit in spaceflight food system
• Safe to crew microbiome and dysregulation

Note: Identify the potential for optimization of growth, survival, and strain selection for spaceflight

Test of Microbes in space

Plant Biology

Goal - to grow edible plants in space that could be used as a source of food for crew

Potential Considerations

1. Gravity affects plant growth, metabolism, or plants and microbes interactions?
2. Effects of radiation on plants?

Past study in Plants

Findings:

• DNA methylation changes in plants
• Genes related to various stress response
• Plant adaptations to ionizing radiation

Radiation experiment on plants