Butterfly Experiment Flies to the ISS

The next shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to take place in about five days, on November 16. Atlantis will then lift off from the Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, and will head to the orbital lab, delivering a new set of science equipment and experiments along. The payload bay will also include the “CSI 03 – Butterflies in Space” experiment, which is built by experts in the University of Colorado in Boulder (UCB) Aerospace Engineering Department. In charge of the design was the company BioServe Space Technologies.

The suitcase-sized payload has been in use for delivering similar experiments to orbit for many years, and this is one of the main reasons why it was also selected to be employed for the butterfly project. The device will contain two butterfly habitats, each of them featuring monarch and painted lady butterfly larvae that will develop and grow in microgravity. Enough nectar and other nutrients are placed inside so as to support their growth for the duration of the study. The thing about this experiment is that it will be monitored by thousands of K-12 students from around the United States for as long as it lasts.

“One of the most exciting things about this project is that we can use the International Space Station to bring spaceflight experiments into classrooms around the country. Our continuing goal is to inspire K-12 students around the country in science, technology, engineering and math,” the principal investigator on the project, BioServe Director Louis Stodieck, explains. He adds that CSI 03 is the fourth educational project of this type that the company has helped carry to orbit. Students from about 100 elementary and middle schools will have access to the experiment, he adds.

Once in orbit, images of the experiments will be collected every 15 minutes, and the students will get a chance to compare the insects developing way above them with the ones they will be provided with by their teachers. The main differences that occur between the developmental processes will therefore be analyzed almost in real time, providing students with an ample opportunity to understand precisely how the harshness of space affects the life of the butterflies in orbit.