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How do I build a near-space life support system for insects?


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Hello fellow forum users!

I am a big fan of HAB's or high altitude balloons and have launched ones of my own before.

For those of you who don't know, High altitude balloons are basically capsules with scientific equipment(sensors, cameras, ect...) that are attached to a balloon and sent into the upper stratosphere, around 100,000 feet. From this altitude the capsule is above 99% of the atmosphere and exposed to most of the radiation of space. You can see for hundreds of miles in every direction and see the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space.

This spring I will launch another HAB, and I will be adding some new experiments on. One of which is a little something I like to call:

The Insect Life Support System

It will keep various species of insects alive inside it as it goes to the edge of space and back and they will be thriving when they are recovered.

The problem is I haven't got a clue on how to do this, and I've googled to no avail, so I thought that the geniuses at the KSP Forums might be able to help!

Any advise would be appreciated, and would help make this system a reality!

The criteria are:

1. This thing is going to need to survive the vacuum of space without exploding

2. This thing will need to block cosmic radiation and UV rays to keep the insects alive(I might have got the exact terminology for that wrong)

3. This thing will need to stay together and keep the insects alive under forces of extreme wind, freefalls at almost the speed of sound, and the impact once it hits the ground (5-10 m/s)

5. It needs to support a atmosphere the insects can survive in

4. It's gotta be pretty cheap (no more than 100$ but the cheaper, the better)

5. It needs to be light, a pound or less

6. It's gotta be warm enough for the insects to survive inside

7. I haven't yet determined the insects I'll be using, any suggestions in this area would also be appreciated

If this system does get built i'll emblazon the names if the contributors on the capsule.

Thank you for your help in advance, TheDataMiner

The video of my first launch is here: bit.ly/nearspace

Edited by TheDataMiner
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As far as I know a lot of insects are very resilient, so you would only need an air tight container.

Maybe add a foam layer to absorb most of landing impact and an added bonus of retaining heat and blocking Sun light.

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10 meters per second? Ouch, that's gonna be a mighty jolt :( Insects would survive that, but their cage must be resilient enough to not shatter, crushing its inhabitants. Depending on the time the flight will take, you will need to provide buggies with moisture source - like tightly rolled wad of wet cotton or something.

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I'd think ants wouldn't be a bad bet - give them some food (Jell-O or anything sugary isn't a bad bet, they go nuts for it), enough air, and a bit of dirt to dig in, and they'll be happy almost regardless of what else you do to them. Upside is that dirt acts as a natural insulator, so if they're not up there too long, they won't even feel the cold outside. A possible experiment design:

1. Build/buy a sheet metal box with sealed corners and a sealable lid. Fill with dirt.

2. Buy a commercially available ant-farm kit. They're not hard to find, and pretty cheap.

3. About a week before launch, pour ants into container, to give them time to develop their colony. Feed regularly (see above).

4. Just before launch, seal the box, attach it to the balloon, and send them off.

5. Find the box after impact. The dirt should actually help cushion the impact (though the ants might not be too happy about having to dig themselves out). If you're really ambitious, give it a small parachute or something before launch so they don't have to.

6. Make quip about ants from outer space.

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If you are going to do a life support experiment you might want to use only one or two different species of insects with a few of each in different containers so that you would know what is the least they need to survive instead of doing as much as you can for them to survive without knowing why they lived, since the conditions for them would be the same as those on the ground.

About what you could use to store them, a very Low Tech container, like a few very small PET bottles bundled together, which might survive the low pressure and fall but would probably let radiation in, but Aluminium foil might protect them from the UV, you would just need to make it air tight, and make sure they have enough air for the trip.

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You won't need to worry about radiation protection, it's still well inside the protective effect of earth's magnetic field and the exposure will be comparable to that of an airliner I think. Even if it's a thousand times higher, there's not going to be a way of telling how much they got exposed to. Unless you add a counter to the balloon, I don't know if they make em light enough off the shelf but that might be a fun measurement

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Thanks for the suggestions!

One thing you haven't mentioned is a light material that will keep a breathable(for insects)atmosphere inside without exploding.

@NGTOne great suggestions, but sheet metal is too heavy.

@DonLorenzo how much radiation would they be exposed to compared to the ISS for example?

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Most bugs are highly resistant to acceleration, and their oxygen consumption is very low. If you can ensure they have 1 atm of pressure, they can remain in a small bottle for a whole day. It's not hard at all. Don't worry about the radiation.

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One thing you haven't mentioned is a light material that will keep a breathable(for insects)atmosphere inside without exploding.

A thermos bottle would do the trick and the cup part adds an air tight insurance if you can secure it with lock tight and some material to seal the edges.

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I'm not sure if this would work, but what about a 2L Coke bottle. According to what I found on the internet (real reliable, I know) a 2L soda bottle can survive 11.6atm of pressure. What I think you may be able to do is to place a few trimmings of fresh cut grass (since the individual cells are still living) and use them to recycle some of the CO2 in it (although CO2 won't be that large if an issue.) Next, wrap it with a few heater elements. These can be as simple as a 9v battery and some resistors. As far as any radiation, wrap a few bags of water around it. I know water is dense enough to block some radiation (although you may want to wrap the heating element in some tubing to prevent any stray wires from puncturing the bags.) If you want, maybe find a way to "mist" the insects using water from the bags. To help with the impact, I'd try dirt in the bottom of the bottle. I've heard dirt is some what compressible. So the dirt in the bottle, the water, and the structure of the payload should be enough to ensure survival. Then its just your usual tracker, radio, and any other sensors you decide to send up.

I'm just stating ideas that come to my head right now.

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I wouldn't worry too much about cosmic radiation. Cosmic ray particles are pretty high energy, but the flux isn't exactly steady. Just cross your fingers that a proton with the kinetic energy of a baseball doesn't hit your vessel.

In regard to other forms of radiation, UV is pretty intense up there so make your container opaque.

It only needs to contain 1 ATM, so anything with a pressure rating will work.

If it were me, I'd make it out of pvc or abs with threaded endcaps for easy access.

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Just use a cockroach. They're resistant to radiation, and can survive without food or water for a month+. The only thing you'll need to give them is MAYBE oxygen, as the longest recorded time for a cockroach to survive without air is 45 minutes underwater.

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Only 3-4 hours? Hah, that's different pair of galoshes :) OK, speaking from my experience as long-time ant farm owner: buy some plastic vials. Pour some clean water into the vial (about 1/3 volume), then prepade a small wad of thickly rolled cotton and push it into the vial. It should touch water until it is soaked through, but not leaking, and there is no more air between water and cotton. Fed your ants before flight: regular honey is best, but you can use sugary water too. Put the ants in the fridge for a hour or two - it should make them lethargic, so you can relocate them to the vials without trouble. Warning! Don't freeze them, just cool a bit. When ants are in the vials cork them with another wad of cotton - you can secure it with a piece of tape. Just make sure some air can get through the cotton.

Here's link to the movie showing how to do this. It's in polish :), but i'm sure you will understand what to do. Guys used glass vials, but they will shatter under impact - use plastic ones instead.

Life support: well fed ants with a source of moisture can survive couple of days in such setup without trouble. If you put them in hermetically closed box with some space inside, there should be enough air. Only concern is temperature: if it drops below water freezing point ice will destroy vials, and ants most likely will die. So some sort of a heater and insulation is required. But don't make it too hot - above 30 degrees Celsius can bake the insects. Just keep it couple of degrees above water freezing point.

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I would go for a coke bottle too. Seal the lid with self-amalgamating tape and put it in the same insulated container I presume you're putting your electronics in (polystyrene box?) Insects are small and tough, so impacts aren't a biggy for them. Low temps just make them sluggish, as long as you keep them above freezing they'll be fine. All you need to do is make sure they've got enough oxygen, and a bottle full would last them for weeks.

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If soda bottles can keep up their 1-2 bar above sea level pressure for months without special preparation, they will hold in stratosphere. Just wrap it with glass wool to protect it from cooling down and UV rays. You can go with few bucks for your trouble.

As said before, bugs like sugary water so feed them before deploying. They can survive for at least a week in such conditions. Stratosphere isn't that scary.

After retrieval, you can douse them with acetone or ethanol vapors and store them in a vial labeled "bugs which were in stratosphere".

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A tin can would work very well too.

If you have somebody around you that makes conserves (like a farmer or an enthousiastic grandma), you could use their machine. These things are cheap, sturdy, completely airtight, provide radiation protection, easy to open.

Soda bottles are nice, but it might be difficult to get stuff in an out. Maybe some kind of plastic jar?

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After retrieval, you can douse them with acetone or ethanol vapors and store them in a vial labeled "bugs which were in stratosphere".

That's hardly a way to treat heroic bugs - surviving all that just to be killed.

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