Germans to blast fish into space

German scientists will today blast 60 baby cichlid fish 260km into space aboard a two-stage rocket to see how the poor blighters react to six minutes of weightlessness. The piscine guinea pigs will lift off from Sweden's Esrange Space Centre on the 11-metre Texus vessel, Reuters reports. Some will be subjected to a "pure zero …

[philip]

Come on, fish in space!

I dont trust this story. It just smells too fishy to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Delivery Note

Customer : ISS

Order Summary: Assortment of fresh fish

Order Processed: 14:00 GMT

Your account will be debited accordingly.

Thank you for your custom.

[Waggers]

Poor blighters?

Beardy Branson would charge them a fortune for the privalege

(Chose the Linux penguin just for the fish link, if you're wondering)

[Tim]

Oh, fishy, fishy, fishy, fish

That went wherever I did go.

[cor]

Wait for it....

"..So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.."

[james]

Pike

As a member of the Pike family I'm not sure how fair this is to the fish.

Also, what's the IT angle here?!

[Anonymous Coward]

It just doesn't hold water..

All this, motion sickness talk makes me feel a bit green around the gills...

[JeffyPooh]

Wait a second...

Fish don't have knuckles, do they?

[Barry Carr]

Water?

Surely all the water will spill out of the bowl during the flight?

Mines the wet suit with the flowery flippers

[Richard Pennington]

Taking the Pisces?

I'll get my wetsuit and snorkel...

[Pete Mallam]

We are observing your earth!

This sounds like the sort of thing B-Grade horror movies start with!

[Paul]

FTW?

So - at regular intervals there are new arrivals at the ISS. They blast off from Earth experiencing high G forces and then spend weeks or months in zero G. And still a bunch of researchers feel the need to simulate this by sending fish up for a WHOLE 6 MINUTES.

Am I missing something?

[Anonymous Coward]

This must be a joke.

Fish can tumble when they get ammonia / nitrite poisoning.

i.e.: fish poo when stressed, that's why when you get home the bag is full of detritus. "Ammo" tablets will alleviate some of that. More importantly, they tumble as their swim bladders burst -- which is extremely like to happen during launch.

I imagine they will be going up in bags or tupperware "lunch" boxes -- as water weighs a hell of a lot, never mind the glass holding it.

I bet Paris Hilton would have better ideas.

[Spleen]

Let's get them out of the way

A rocket is no plaice for a poor fish. What a codawful way to treat them.

[Steve Evans]

When I saw the headline...

i thought they were sending some of that tinned Swedish fish up to see it's effect in a combined space!

[Andrew Heenan]

Pigs In Space

I bet the Muppets wish they'd had more imagination!

But seriously, the only way to know for sure - in light of the erudite and incisive advice above - would be to include one of theose 'Fish Castles' in the bowl and see if they manage to swim through the arch while weightless.

My worry is how the poor things will manage the manual re-entry procedures (if necessary), and how they'll cope with extra vehicular activity should running repairs be required.

And if they are German Fishtronauts, might they be taken ill (but not life threatening) while in space?

[James H]

Smoked oysters as well?

Room service in orbit has certainly improved since the days of toothpaste style rib-eye.

All those fish with marble sized helmets, that's the way to save on water weight.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds fishy...

So where do they get the oxygen from? The fish I've got wouldn't survive very happily in a sealed water environment - combine that with weightlessness I can imagine they'll either be swimming in globules of water, or suffocating in watertight containers.

Either way, paves the way for a catch and release scheme on the ISS eventually. I'm sure they'd love that to combat the boredom.

Mine's the parka jacket next to the waders.

[ian]

A word from the Illuminati

Extremely unlikely this. Fish sense up from down by detecting the source of illumination. Fish in an otherwise dark cave will swim upside-down if illuminated from below.

[Jon Tocker]

@ JeffyPooh

"Fish don't have knuckles, do they?"

Wot? You never 'eard of fish fingers?

<snatch coat>

<SLAM!>

"TAXI!"

[Finn]

Out of ideas?

They spend unholy amount of money to blast couple of shushi v1.0s to orbit?

Has anybody else got the feeling that they are running out of meaningful things to do in space and are just spending their research funds any way they can?

[Andrew Heenan]

Running out of meaningful things to do?

NASA hasn't reached the 'celebrity barrier' yet. Fish are thought to have an attention span measurable in seconds, rather than the z-list nano seconds, so the current experiment may have merit.

Once they start sending meaningless celebrities into space as an experiment in 'social interaction', then all credibility will be lost. They are probably negotiating with Paris Hilton's agent and any male rock star too cocained-up to say no, as we speak.

That day will come, as evidenced by the trend toward sending items up for the astronauts 'comfort', like gymnasium modules and aquariums. Next will be 'art', and Paris is rumoured to be holding out for a pink space suit (the space-fashion equivalent of hi-viz).

[W]

Space fish?

I, for one, welcome our new, fishy, overlords.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh?

I doubt we'll be herring about this again - it doesn't seem like the most efishient way to do science.