SPIDERNAUTS

Spiders in space! It’s not the title of a horror movie about mutant insects. NASA has actually sent live spiders into space to study their behavior. The most recent “spidernauts,” a pair of jumping spiders, lived in controlled habitats created especially for them, and returned home at the end of the trip. No spiders were harmed in their missions. What on Earth were spiders doing in space, you ask?

EIGHT LEGS IN MICROGRAVITY

The researchers were studying the effects of weightlessness on the spiders. Gravity is the force that makes objects fall to at the same speed that they are flying the Earth. While objects and people inside the shuttle seem to be floating in air, they are actually moving at the same speed as the spacecraft they are riding in. That’s 17,500 miles (28,000 km) per hour!