[Wild Fragaria]

This is more a like a space hotel for insects at the moment.  I hate roaches but the Madagascar hissing cockroaches sound quite cool.

Nature News Published online: 8 August 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060807-7

Nearly a month after the successful launch and deployment of an inflatable model space hotel (see 'The inflatable space hotel'), the craft is still going strong — but the fate of its residents is as yet unknown.

The spacecraft, a 4-metre-wide watermelon-shaped hostelry called Genesis I, was launched on 12 July by US hotelier and millionaire Robert Bigelow. His company, Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, aims to use the test-run to develop inflatable space habitats for humans.

But for the meantime, this craft carries four Madagascar hissing cockroaches and roughly 20 Mexican jumping beans. [email protected] set out to discover what had become of these hapless guests, and take a look at the state of their hotel room.

After launch, Genesis I was inflated with compressed air. That all went well and the leak rate — a concern for any spacecraft, inflatable or not — is so low that it is barely detectable. The temperature on board is a comfy 26 ºC. The only technical hitch so far is that the ship has adopted a slow roll that makes it difficult for land-based monitoring stations to get a fix on its antennas. That has slowed data downloading and delayed transmission of live video feed.

Without video, mission controllers are struggling to use still pictures to ascertain the situation on board.

"It actually looks like some of the jumping beans have hatched and grown," says programme manager Eric Haakonstad. The roaches are in different places in different pictures, he adds, but he can't tell whether they are roaming around on their own or merely being jostled by movements of the ship.

The cockroaches were last seen alive on 16 June, when they were loaded in mesh-covered boxes into the craft. They were left in captivity, dining on water and dried dog kibble, until the delayed launch on 12 July subjected them to vibrations and acceleration. They were then in a vacuum for a few minutes before the Genesis I craft was deployed and inflated.

That would be enough to kill many creatures, but not necessarily the hardy cockroach, which can survive many weeks without food. Charles Cockell, now a professor at the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute of Open University, UK, once studied how well cockroaches can withstand a drop in atmospheric pressure. At 100 millibars — one-tenth of normal atmospheric pressure - the bugs actively pumped air into their abdomens to survive, he found, swelling themselves up in the process to about one and a half times the normal size. "It's pretty gross actually," says Cockell.

Bigelow Aerospace tested a number of different cockroaches and found that the Madagascar hissing roach, which can grow to more than 7.5 centimetres long and can weigh as much as 24 grams, proved that they had the right stuff by enduring more than 2 hours in a vacuum. "After 20 to 30 minutes they came back to life and we thought 'Oh my gosh, they deserve to go to space'," says Bigelow.

Conditions aboard Genesis II, tentatively scheduled for launch at the end of 2007, will be comparatively posh. "All the other critters on Genesis II will have self-contained oxygen and nitrogen systems so the vacuum won't affect them," says Bigelow. That mission is planned to carry two ant farms and a few scorpions into space.

Haakonstad says Genesis I should last at least 5 years before losing orbit and burning up in the Earth's atmosphere, making "a spectacular little comet."

If the crew is still alive today, they may yet face a few more crises before dying of starvation in about 6 months time. The team at Bigelow Aerospace cut a few safety corners on Genesis I, says William Schneider, a professor at Texas A&M University in College Station, and consultant to Bigelow Aerospace. There is only one layer of material holding air in the interior; a space vessel for human inhabitants would have at least three in case one is pierced. "We don't have to make it that redundant for roaches," says Schneider.

If and when high-resolution video starts streaming down from the craft the team will find out whether it needs to worry about the health of their guests. Keep an eye on their website for updates.

[aldo_14]

You know it's inevitable, though, that either a) they'll manage to infest the ISS or b) solar radiation will give them super mutant powers

[Ashrak]

You know it's inevitable, though, that either a) they'll manage to infest the ISS or b) solar radiation will give them super mutant powers of doom™

[Bobboau]

I knew roaches were tough little bastureds but ****!

wait a second, bugs that can survived in the vacume of space for prolonged periods of time... I don't think I even want to know what this is going to turn into a few hundred years from now.

but anyway, as long as it helps to posability of the space elivator I'm all for it.

[Mefustae]

You know it's inevitable, though, that either a) they'll manage to infest the ISS or b) solar radiation will give them super mutant powers of doom™

Well, I for one welcome our new insectoid overlords, seems like a different kind of politician.

[Unknown Target]

Does anyone else want to see a picture of one of those ballooned cockroaches?

[karajorma]

I'm still trying to figure out how a creature with an exoskeleton can balloon in the first place.

[Wobble73]

They're gonna mutate an come back as Carl's cousins, I warning you!


Joke!

[Colonol Dekker]

RE: SPace elevator, I love the one from the start of I-WAR.
RE: Insect overlords, Cosmic rays......................You never know. Mexican Jumping beans are evil little sods, Kinda like plankton from Spongebob.

[Wild Fragaria]

Does anyone else want to see a picture of one of those ballooned cockroaches?

I don't think they posted the picture.  I can look it up when I have some time.

I'm still trying to figure out how a creature with an exoskeleton can balloon in the first place.

A process called ecdysis?  They probably shed their original exoskeleton and balllon up the new one before harden?  The left over can be quite a good food source.  You raised a very interesting point.

[Herra Tohtori]

I would guess that the belly panzer of thous roaches is not made of one single part but rather many overlapping pieces that are not securely held onto each other, but rather only attach to the bug's insides and thus give a better rate of motion and flexibility, while still giving adequate protection and support.

[karajorma]

I'm still trying to figure out how a creature with an exoskeleton can balloon in the first place.

A process called ecdysis?  They probably shed their original exoskeleton and balllon up the new one before harden?  The left over can be quite a good food source.  You raised a very interesting point.

But that's a process that takes a fair bit of time I'd imagine. I doubt it could do it quickly enough. I was thinking something along the lines that Herra Tohtori was thinking of.

[aldo_14]

I think Hissing Cockroaches can store oxygen in their abdomen in spiracles, which can store air in sacs to provide the hissing (ala bellows).  Although i'm not sure about other roaches (although AFAIK the hissing use for a spiracle-and-sac, rather than the spiracles and air sacks per se, is the unique adaptation).  I'm pretty sure the exoskeleton is formed 'plates' attached to flexible skin, though.