Bees in space
I once heard a bee keeper liken keeping bees with farming aliens, a statement I'm confident anyone who has kept bees will relate to. Bees are indeed very much like an alien life form although this may be because we when we imagine alien life forms we naturally turn to bees as one of the terrestrial species most alien to us.
|
Melissa Majoria - Planet inhabited by migrant bees, some of which made their way to earth (Dr Who, 2009)
|
As far as I am aware only ca. 6800 European honey bees (Apis Mellifera) and 3 Carpenter bees have actually made it into space.
The European honey bees were part of an experiment conducted on the Challenger Shuttle. Two bee enclosure modules (BEMs) each containing approximately 3400 worker bees and 1 queen were observed over the 7-day mission. The report for the study stated that:
'During the first video recording session on April 9, some bees attempted to fly, but collided with the chamber walls. However, by the end of the 7-day mission, the bee’s flight patterns showed complete adaptation to microgravity.'
The bees were observed making comb and the queens laid 15 eggs.
Although many of the bees died during the mission, some survived and were returned to the Johnson Space Centre (JSC).
The carpenter bees were not so fortunate as they were aboard the shuttle Columbia that burnt up on reentry in 2003.
The European honey bees were part of an experiment conducted on the Challenger Shuttle. Two bee enclosure modules (BEMs) each containing approximately 3400 worker bees and 1 queen were observed over the 7-day mission. The report for the study stated that:
'During the first video recording session on April 9, some bees attempted to fly, but collided with the chamber walls. However, by the end of the 7-day mission, the bee’s flight patterns showed complete adaptation to microgravity.'
The bees were observed making comb and the queens laid 15 eggs.
Although many of the bees died during the mission, some survived and were returned to the Johnson Space Centre (JSC).
The carpenter bees were not so fortunate as they were aboard the shuttle Columbia that burnt up on reentry in 2003.
For those that believe in Astrology (note: Tom Bean is not amongst them), another example of bees in space is the constellation originally named Apes (plural of Apis, Latin for bee) by Petrus Plancius. Created it in 1612 it is comprised of the small group of stars, now called 33 Arietis, 35 Arietis, 39 Arietis, and 41 Arietis. This constellation is now better known as Musca Borealis (Latin for northern fly).
