Expeditions, round 1, week 2 progress/report

1. Week 2 Progress report

2. Proposal
DONE Overview (from proposal)
“Moon Bears to Space is a project where our fundamental goal is to send
tardigrades/water bears in a living habitat to the International Space Station and
eventually the moon. Tardigrades were some of the first organisms to live on Earth. So
we believe they should have the right be the first to colonize the moon. Our plan is to
build a self-sustaining environment for the tardigrades, in which they can thrive and
reproduce while being in orbit around the Earth. The self-sustaining environment will be
3D printed from the ISS, while our other essential materials, including the tardigrades,
will be sent up in an envelope like small package.”
Link: Proposal

3. Hardware Task - Lab petri dish
(Made with TinkerCad)

4. The Motor
After every 24 hours the
motor will make a full
rotation, pushing the end
forward and pushing out a
limited amount of water
into the petri dish. This
system can be automated
using an arduino or other
sorts to have a rotation
every 24 hours. A tube will
also be put in place to refill
the syringe using gravity.

5. The Piston
This piston pushes a controlled
amount of water into the petri
dish when the motor pushes
forward. It is connected to the
motor.

6. The Dripper
This is a small bucket of water
that hangs over the petri dish,
while there is a small tube at
the bottom allows very little
water to pass through, making
small, steady drips into the
petri dish (to keep the
tardigrade environment
hydrated so the tardigrades
don’t go into their “tun state”).

7. The left side of the
petri dish
On the left side of the petri
dish, there will be a more
controlled environment,
there will only be moss
and water for the
tardigrades (there will be
more water than what
would be natural).
Tardigrades will live in a
more natural environment
on this side of the petri dish.
There will be dirt, moss,
small twigs, some grass, etc.
Water intake will also be
more natural (like rain).
There will be less water in
this part of the petri dish
than there will be in the
other part to make it more
like a natural environment
you would find outside.
The right side of the
petri dish

8. Perspectives

9. How this will allow us to learn more about
tardigrades?
This will allow us to learn more about tardigrades by allowing us to see how
how they survive/interact in different environments.
We are going to have two controlled environments:
- One side of the petri dish will have a larger amount of water and only has
moss
- The other side will be more of a natural environment. There will be dirt,
moss, small twigs, some grass, etc. Water intake will also be more natural
(like rain).

10. Weekly Reflection (0-10) :
Remy - 8
Jake - 8
Christina - 9
Drew - 8
Mark - 9