Alan, thank you very much for that!

Steve

On 9/9/15, Alan Gettleman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Steve-the super condensed version:  The first mollusks in space were
> veligers of Mytilus edulis our common blue mussel which flew of STS 77 in
> May 1996 as part of the Canadian Aquatic Research Facility (ARF) payload
> along with two separate experiments on seastars and sea urchins.  The
> Mytilus researchers from the University of Dalhousie in Nova Scotia measured
> calcium deposition on shell formation in space.  Space travelers lose bone
> mass during extended periods in the microgravity of space.  I had the
> opportunity to have ARF as one of my assigned payloads during payload
> processing at Kennedy Space Center.  Cassette sized aquaria in triple
> containment housed the experiment (seawater leaking out would not be a good
> thing for the electronics of the space station in microgravity).  One of the
> challenges in using Canadian animals, the aquaria had to be kept at a cold
> 60 degrees F., hard to do in the heat of Florida.  I gave a program on this
> in 1998 at the Orlando COA.
> The second shuttle flight used the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata on
> the European Space Agency (ESA) Neurolab flight experiment which included
> sending fish into space on STS 90 in 1998.  I did not work on that payload
> but did visit the processing facility to see the racks of large aquaria full
> of fish.  The ESA researcher was somewhat surprised but pleased I showed an
> interest in the snails to fly as everyone else were more interested in the
> fish.  I asked her the purpose of the snails- and the answer was the same as
> with your home aquarium - to eat the algae forming on the tanks.
> And Paul- no Liguus live this far north, unfortunately.  The worst potential
> hitchhiker to the shuttle was to the external foam tank  when flickers
> decided to peck away at the foam in order to make a nest.  Since we are in a
> wildlife refuge, the birds were gently and humanely relocated and the hole
> patched.
> Alan Gettleman
> Merritt Island, Florida
>
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