Second Dead Newt Poses Problem for Shuttle Scientists

A second newt was found dead Monday aboard space shuttle Columbia, and scientists were trying to figure out how to fish it from its tank without splashing water that could float around the laboratory and damage sensitive equipment.

Leaving the dead newt in the tank would increase the chance of contaminating the water for the newts, newt eggs and guppy-like fish in that tank and the two others hooked to the aquarium system.

Mission manager Lanny Upton said the astronauts would not be asked to open the tank and pull out the dead newt unless it is safe to do so.

Water, like other fluids, forms quivering globules the size of golf balls and bigger when spilled in the weightlessness of space. The fear is that those globules might slam into instruments and splatter.

The newt’s death Monday leaves only two adult newts aboard the shuttle.

Wiederhold and other scientists on the ground want to see how the animals develop and behave in weightlessness and thus learn more about human development for missions someday to Mars and beyond.

“There’s either something peculiar with these newts or who knows? We just haven’t been able to figure out anything,” said Michael Wiederhold, a researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

Researchers are reluctant to remove and freeze the tank, as they did last week in the case of the first dead newt, because the aquarium system needs three tanks to operate properly and only three are left.

At least 48 newt eggs have been hatched in space. The shuttle’s Japanese Medaka fish population is also experiencing a baby boom. Most of the 340 eggs sent into space and six or seven of those laid in orbit have hatched.