Nematodes in Space
 

Because its complete genetic sequence is known, Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent candidate for studying how weightlessness and space radiation affect an organism's genes. Since diverse organisms share many of the same genes, such studies may give scientists a better understanding of how space travel may affect human genes. A Stanford University experiment used balloons to launch worms into the stratosphere on Jan. 18 and 19, 2004 to determine whether the lack of gravity affects organisms at the cellular level. 

Caenorhabditis elegans on board the space shuttle Columbia in 2002 surviced the crash.  The balloon experiment is a step towards NemaSat, a Stanford-based project to launch worms into orbit aboard small satellites. Since the life span of a worm is about three weeks multiple generations can be completed in orbit. The goal is a fully automated experiment to find out what genes get turned on and off in space. The experiment would circle the Earth until its orbit decays and its payload burns up in the atmosphere.

In the January launches, scientists placed the worms in a small container monitored by a camera. They attached the container to a helium-filled latex weather balloon, which ascended high into the atmosphere and burst an hour later, sending the worms into about 40 seconds of free fall -- a basically weightless state during which telemetry communicated their behavior to the researchers. Then a parachute deployed to soften the worms' landing in a snow-crusted fallow cornfield.  On the second day, the payload made it to a record height of 107,000 feet (20 miles).