Here is the shrimp experiment, which you might already recognize from our posts in recent years. The idea for the project originated during discussions about food production in Martian colonies. It turns out that shrimp can provide plants with proper fertilization in aquaponic systems. Therefore, the goal of the SHREAMP project became finding a safe method for putting shrimp to sleep during extraterrestrial transport.
For this purpose, an anesthetic eugenol was chosen. A solution was developed that allows safe transport of shrimp in the rocket. – The research module we created has a good chance of success and mission safety: the life of the organisms and the structure inside the rocket.
Each of the modules contained aquariums with three groups of five shrimp – two groups of anesthetized shrimp and one group without anesthetic (control group). Both before and after the flight, measurements were taken of the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ammonia levels in each of the aquariums. Double measurement of water parameters was conducted to assess whether the anesthesia was successful and to determine how much the stress factor affected the organisms.
