A blob, a curious organism that is neither animal, plant nor fungus, will be cultivated aboard the International Space Station, under the watchful eye of astronaut Thomas Pesquet, CNES announced on Friday.
The goal is to see "if the blob behaves differently in space".
A blob, a curious organism that is neither animal, nor plant, nor mushroom, will be cultivated aboard the International Space Station, under the eye of astronaut Thomas Pesquet, announced Friday the Cnes which calls schools to s' associate with the experience on Earth.
Composed of a single cell, the "physarum polycephalum", commonly called a blob, is a living species apart: without a mouth or a brain, it eats, moves, and has amazing learning capacities.
"Wake it up" and photograph its evolution
Several specimens will be hosted on board the Space Station (ISS), where they will be the subject of scientific experiments.
The goal is to see "if the blob behaves differently in space", and to study "the effects of microgravity and radiation on its evolution", details CNES, the French space agency, in a press release.
As part of his "Alpha" mission, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who is due to fly to the ISS on April 22, "will be responsible for 'waking' it up and photographing its evolution according to two protocols": one will test the attitude of two blobs in a food-free environment, the other will provide two other blobs with multiple food sources.
Schools invited to join the experience
The CNES and the CNRS invite 2,000 schools, colleges and high schools to join this "educational experience" and "compare their results in class with those obtained" in orbit.
In the classes as in the Station, the blobs will be delivered in the state of "sclerotia", that is to say dehydrated, before being rehydrated to carry out the experiments.
The blob is the subject of research laboratory studies of Audrey Dussutour, CNRS research director at the Center for Research on Animal Cognition in Toulouse.