Their first orbital webs were messy, disorganized affairs. But a week into their flight, television images beamed back to Earth showed surprising progress.
"We noticed the spider made a symmetrical web," space station commander Mike Fincke told ground controllers on Friday. "We're really amazed that the spider could adapt to space so quickly."
Flight directors replied that the spider video had become the favourite form of entertainment for engineers overseeing the station's science experiments from Earth.
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- dirtyemowords
- added this
- added November 22, 2008
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Cool. I heard that they had a pair, and one excaped in transit...
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We can learn so much from spiders, their silk webs are the strongest material per weight known to man.
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- kennymotown
- 8 months ago
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groovy!
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What up with NASA and spiders?
Didn't they do LSD experiments on spiders in the 60's?
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- OrlanShaman
- 8 months ago
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I earn my living catching spiderwebs and mounting them on glass.My webs are for sale in more than a dozen shops accross America,catalogs,and nationwide outlets.I collected over 2,000 webs this season but none of them were from outerspace! I'd like to show those guys in space how to preserve those webs! Two videos (of me in the woods collecting webs) will air on current tv soon.I have been doing this for more than 35 years and have learned a thing or two about spiders and their webs. I have a different theory as to why the spider was finally able to weave a nice looking web. But that is for another blog...To be continued....
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- spidermanofnj
- 8 months ago
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First of all... may I address the first response in this run ;in regard to the(pair sent ... one arrives) If this has any base in fact... It is most likely that the two spiders sent were actually a pair - as in; one male - one female. If they were in the same container for that long trip into space... well ..let's just say that they would have found a way to pass the time. And then the female would have consumed the male and only one spider would have survived the trip!
But she's bearing young!
Hmmmm .....first spiders born in space.... comming home soon... Didn't they do a movie like that in the 60"s?-
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- spidermanofnj
- 8 months ago
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OK now...to address the more serious matter at hand.
Gravity does play a roll in the dynamics of web building. If the web is on a verticul plane the distance between the orbital lines is greater at the bottom of the orb than at the top due to the effects of gravity. Aside from the fact that the spider needed the effect of gravity in the first place ( in all likelyhood ) just to drop from point a to point b and establish the first line or bridge that becomes one of the main support lines for the web.In the absense of gravity, the only other way for a spider to bridge the gap between A & B is wind. Even on the space station (due to ventilation and climate controll systems) there is more than enough wind current to carry a nearly weightless spider accross the room in a nearly weightless environment. I think that the spiders ability to build a web in space is actually more dependant upon this aspect of wind currents than it is upon the presense or absense of gravity. Correct me if you know I am wrong.-
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- spidermanofnj
- 8 months ago
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