What 6 animals on the ISS teach us about life in space

Even as people are pondering long-term human settlements on other worlds, there’s a lot we don’t know about how life away from Earth affects living things.

To help make our next steps off the planet smoother, NASA and other space agencies have long used animals to test the effects of space.

That may conjure images of lost space dogs, but modern regulations make experiments on animals in space these days more humane and more scientifically sound.

The transparent skin of the zebrafish makes them interesting to scientists who want to study the inner workings of living animals.

NASA is drawn to ants not for their physiology, but for their ability to cooperate when searching for food.

Scientists studied ants aboard the ISS to find out how the lack of gravity affected their searches. This can lead to new search algorithms for robots.

Tardigrades (more adorably known as water bears) are some of the most resilient animals known to science. That makes them ideal for experiments in the harsh environment of space.

NASA’s next planned tardigrade experiment will investigate their famed adaptability to help develop better ways for humans to combat the stresses of life in space.

The tiny bobtail squid have a symbiotic relationship with a type of bioluminescent bacteria, which makes them useful subjects to study beneficial animal-microbe relationships.