Tardigrades are microscopic eight-legged animals that can withstand extreme environments. They are commonly found in semi-terrestrial environments everywhere, and are easily found on moss and lichens. Cryptobiosis is a truly deathlike state and is used to reversibly suspend their metabolism. Anhydrobiosis is a form of cryptobiosis initiated by desiccation and is an almost complete loss of body water that the animal can stay in for an extended period of time. (Lindahl, and Balser ) In order for tardigrades to return to its normal activity it requires a film of water. Tardigrades have levels of X-ray radiation 1000x the lethal human dose. (Bordenstein) This experiment was created to determine the effects of cosmic radiation on survival and fecundity of adult tardigrades and embryos. Using the BIOPAN facility they were able to conduct extraterrestrial experiments in low earth orbit as well as laboratory experiments.
Microcosmos experiment used three different types of tardigrades including R. coronifer, R. oberhauseri, and E. testudo. The experiment was set up to where there are nine cells with six of each species in one cell with a total of eighteen species per cell.
Students working on a Scanning Electron Microscope...
"Scanning Electron Microscope"
English: An image of a house fly eye surface by us...The first three cells are Plexiglas with a flexible 0.04mm UV filter that allows 10% transmission below 390 nanometers; this is full cosmic radiation exposure. The second set of three cells is also made of Plexiglas but use 1mm flouroelastomer, which is also known as Viton, for medium radiation exposure. For the last set of three cells a stainless steel casing with Viton is used for low cosmic radiation exposure. The controls for this experiment are kept in Milano and Baikonur which make a total of 162 specimens used. Mosses are boiled prior to assembly to create a sterilized environment and then are placed in all of the cells with enough water to just cover...