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The unmanned Japanese cargo ship, Kounotori3, delivered a freshwater aquarium to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday. The Aquarium known as the “Aquatic Habitat” or AQH for short, was built by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). A number of studies will be conducted on the Medaka (Oryzias latipes) fish it contains.
NASA and JAXA report that several of the studies to be conducted on the fish like “the impacts of radiation, bone degradation, muscle atrophy, and developmental biology” may lead to better understanding of human health issues back on earth.
"We think studies on bone degradation mechanisms and muscle atrophy mechanisms are applicable to human health problems, especially for the aging society," said Nobuyoshi Fujimoto, associate senior engineer at JAXA’s Space Environment Unitization Center.
According to Gizmag, the AQH actually has two chambers and has an advanced life support system that will circulate water, remove waste, and maintain constant pressure and temperature. The system even feeds the fish so the astronauts only need to watch the fish.
“In order to keep water quality in good condition for the health of the fish, we had to do many tests on the filtration system, especially the bacteria filter," said Nobuyoshi Fujimoto, associate senior engineer at JAXA’s Space Environment Unitization Center. "The special bacteria filter purifies waste materials, such as ammonia, so that we can keep fish for up to 90 days. This capability will make it possible for egg-to-egg breeding aboard station, which means up to three generations may be born in orbit. This would be a first for fish in space."
The Medaka fish is found in rice paddies in Japan. The fish and their eggs are transparent which makes studying the effects of zero gravity much easier. The experiment will take 90 days. Within that time frame it is anticipated that the fish will breed and the eggs will hatch. The genome of the fish has been mapped which will make it easy to tell if there is any genetic variation due to conditions in space.
The AQH is actually very versatile. While it is starting out as an aquarium, it can also be used as an amphibian habitat. For the foreseeable future, it will only be used to study fish. Amphibian experiments will be much further down the road.
Fish have previously been to space in rockets but never on the space station. This 90 day sojourn will be the longest fish in space study conducted. In the immortal words of Douglas Adams, “So long and thanks for all the fish.”
Above photograph from NASA: The above image shows an Aquatic Habitat, or AQH, specimen chamber housing Medaka fish for study. (JAXA)
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