>> Brandi Dean: Today we have with us Tara Ruttley,
who is an ISS Program Scientist, Associate Program Scientist.
Tell us a little bit about some work we saw going on yesterday
in the Kibo Laboratory where engineer [inaudible] was setting
up the aquatic habitat.
Thanks so much for joining us, Tara.
>> Tara Ruttley: It's really good to be back.
I love talking to you guys
and sharing the science that's happening and so, yeah,
it sounds like the JAXA Aquatic Habitat is making its way
on the station and the crew is assembling it,
and I really think this is a really fun facility
for future investigations because it introduces a new type
of physiological model and that's a fish.
So, the Space Station will get its first tank so to speak.
>> Brandi Dean: Is it basically like an aquarium or?
>> Tara Ruttley: Yeah, the way the hardware is set up is
that it's a system of two aquariums and each one is
about half a liter and the system can support anywhere
from 8 to 12 fish if they're zebrafish or medaka fish;
those are the two types that will be studied here.
The system is basically kind of a lot like what you'd see
on the ground in terms of keeping your fish healthy.
You've got an environmental control system
that has a biological filter that filters out the waste.
There's a lighting control system and LED version
that gives night and day, light and dark cycles
so the fish have cues because you don't get
that on the Space Station.
There's automatic feeders for the fish
and there's an oxygenation system
that make sure the fish get oxygen
and water that they need too.
So, it's a nice big facility that will be located
in the Kibo module of the Space Station
and I think the first set of fish are scheduled to go up here
in the fall on a [inaudible] flight
>> Brandi Dean: Okay.
>> Tara Ruttley: So it's pretty exciting.
>> Brandi Dean: For some reason I'm imagining this, you know,
the little plastic bags that you carry home from a fair
when you win a gold fish and probably not like that.
>> Tara Ruttley: Not exactly, right,
because space flight is a little bit more complicated than that.
These fish will go up in a small round container
that will be loaded and they have membranes
that allow exchange of air for the fish loaded with water
and then launched up on a [inaudible]
and then automatically inserted into the habitat.
When this piece of hardware gets inserted into the habitat,
it will release the fish into the aquarium.
So, it's pretty exciting.
This isn't the first time that we've flown a fish in space.
Our JAXA colleagues have had a history of good experience
with especially zebrafish and medaka fish;
they've flown in space.
>> Brandi Dean: That's what's going to be in this.
>> Tara Ruttley: Yes.
Particularly they flew on the early space shuttle flights,
the space [inaudible] flights,
and they were particularly looking at changes
in the fish vestibular system or the system responsible
for balance and that plays a big role in motion sickness.
So, the longest that they've ever flown fish were 16 days
on a shuttle flight.
So what we're looking at now for Space Station is
about a 90-day flight.
So we want to be able to breed fish
over 3 different generations.
So first set of fish will be born on the ground;
launched into space; survive ideally; reproduce in space,
so they'll have children; and then after that
that generation will produce more fish
that were pure space bred and developed.
So the things that the scientists want to look
at when we're talking about looking at these fish,
why would you even want to do that?
Longer exposure to space flight tells us more about something
that might be applicable to the crew health.
For example, you can get a good look
at these particular fish muscle system,
their skeletal system and, you know,
crew on long-duration space flights have a lot of changes
in their muscle and their bone systems
and so we can get a little bit of information
from how these fish develop and the longer they stay as well
through their bone and muscle.
We also can look at effects of radiation
on these particular fish as well and, in fact,
we may glean some really interesting information
about how they develop, early development, on Space Station
because a lot of the way even we develop,
everything that develops,
every living organism has this response
to gravity they develop based on this gravity vector.
So it would be really interesting
to see the development progression in a situation
where you take that microgravity environment away how will these
fish turn out?
So, I know the crew that gets these fish are excited.
I've talked to them about it
and they're anxious to get going on it.
It sounds like the development is progressing along
and so the first set of experiments is going
to be called Medaka osteo class and that will start in the fall
when these fish go up and osteo class is a type
of cell that's very active in breaking down the bone,
it's normal, and microgravity there seems to be process
by which they prevail and go kind
of a little bit in hyperactive mode.
As a result, you tend to break down more bone.
So, the investigators will look at the activity
of the osteo class in these fish
after their long duration stay on microgravity.
>> Brandi Dean: Okay.
Well, a couple of things.
You mentioned that breeding them in the Space Station.
I know we brought up before on purpose mice and spiders
and butterflies, but have we don't anything
that we have had several generations of?
>> Tara Ruttley: No, nothing that's been this long term
in terms of generational.
We've sent up, actually we've sent up seedlings,
I think plants might be a good way to think about it and so one
of the challenges of plant growth is
to just get multi-generations of seed-to-seed formation.
So, this will be I think the longest going investigation set
in terms of generational producing of living organisms.
>> Brandi Dean: So not only how the ones that started
on earth adapt to microgravity but also the ones
who have never experienced gravity at all.
>> Tara Ruttley: You got that right.
Yeah.
>> Brandi Dean: Interesting.
Let's see you also said I think that it's going to last 90 days
so that gives us a few crew that will be involved.
So they get special training for it or is it just throw
in some fish flakes or?
>> Tara Ruttley: I think the training they get is specific
to injecting the fish into their home and then removing them
when the investigation is over as well
as they may add some flakes to the automatic feeder
but otherwise it's a see through tank
so they can watch the activity, these fish swim around,
so it will be interesting to see what their perspective is
of behavior, you know, what the crew thinks
about having fish on orbit.
>> Brandi Dean: Well, this may reveal my ignorance,
but I guess we practice for space walks in water
to simulate microgravity.
The fish are already in water.
Will it feel very different to them or?
>> Tara Ruttley: I guess we'll find out, you know,
the vestibular study showed some changes in their inner ear
so there's definitely something going on in terms
of their physiology I guess you could say.
So, it will be interesting to see how that manifests
and especially with that third generation, you know,
it's hard to say since we haven't gone that far before.
>> Brandi Dean: Okay.
I guess also this could eventually be used
for amphibians possibly as well?
>> Tara Ruttley: Yeah.
The tank is pretty versatile.
Just imagine what you could put in your tank
at home that could survive.
Maybe frogs, right?
Or snails or eels even.
[laughter] I was just at the aquarium a few days ago
with my daughter and we were looking at fish
and I'm going what could survive in that aquatic?
I was wondering the same thing myself so who knows.
We have a long time on Space Station.
>> Brandi Dean: Have a menagerie up there eventually.
>> Tara Ruttley: That's right.
Never know.
>> Brandi Dean: All right.
Thank you so much for coming and talking with us.
>> Tara Ruttley: You're welcome.
>> Brandi Dean: I really appreciate it.
>> Tara Ruttley: It was good to be here.
>> Brandi Dean: Again, this is Tara Ruttley,
the Associate Program Scientist for the Space Station talking
with us about the aquatic habitat
that astronaut [inaudible] put together yesterday
on the Space Station in the Kibo Laboratory.