What Our Experiment is About

Ladybugs in Space will show how micro-gravity will affect the life cycle of a ladybug. We feel that it is important to discover how micro-gravity could affect ladybugs so that in the future, if there are gardens in space, astronauts and scientists will be able to prevent pests like aphids from destroying food resources.

We expect that micro-gravity will speed up the process, that typically takes 26-54 days (from egg to adult) on earth.

While the ladybugs are in space, we will be conducting a ground truth test to monitor our findings and document our results. We will compare our findings after the mission returns back to earth.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Day 5 - Man when is anything gonna happen?

Well, still no eggs. I did learn that the ladybugs could hold male sperm for 2-3 months, so it could be some time before we actually see any eggs...

We've had a few bugs die - I suppose it's the circle of life. They fall on their backs and then can't get up, and well, then they die because they can't turn over.

I think we actually had a casualty in the little cup of water too - looked like there was a floating bug in there. :( I'm wondering if I should remove the cup?

It looked like there were a lot less bugs today - they're not hanging out by the light like they had been. I was worried, UNTIL I opened the lid...

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The pictures aren't very good, but it seems like they like to hide under the lid where we can't see them! Maybe they don't like being on display... Who can blame them...


  




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