BioEd Online

Astronaut Cady Coleman named the two “spidernauts” Gladys (Habitat One) and Esmeralda (Habitat Two). The spiders lived in separate chambers installed within the Bioserve Commerical Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, which provided the power source to run the lighting and camera module systems for the habitats, onboard the ISS.

Each habitat contained a food supply of living fruit flies and was equipped with cameras and lighting systems. The lights were set to a 24-hour cycle that provided 12 hours of “daylight” and 12 hours of “nighttime.” Photographs taken at “night” were captured using infrared light.

Gladys and Esmeralda were transported to ISS on the space shuttle Endeavour (STS-134) and returned to Earth on July 21, 2011, as part of the space shuttle's final mission (STS-135). Upon her return, Gladys presented student investigators with a surprise. Still thriving, she was examined carefully, and it was discovered that “she” was really a “he,” a male golden orb spider. We quickly changed the name  Gladys to Gladstone. The male spider showed no signs of “jet lag” upon returning to Earth’s gravity. He drank water and climbed to the top of the habitat, as would be normal. Unfortunately, Gladstone's partner, Esmeralda, did not survive the flight home. But she lived out her normal life span in space.

Esmeralda and Gladstone contribute to science. Hourly images of the spiders are available on BioEd Online (see below). The free Spiders in Space Teacher’s Guide provides instructions for setting up ground-based spider habitats and helping students to design their own experiments. We invite you to use these resources and compare the behavior of spiders on Earth to that of Esmeralda and Gladstone during their travels in space.