Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!HPM@SU-AI From: HPM@SU-AI@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.space Subject: none Message-ID: <3175@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Sun, 17-Jul-83 22:28:00 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.3175 Posted: Sun Jul 17 22:28:00 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 18-Jul-83 23:41:46 EDT Lines: 52 From: Hans Moraveca067 0608 12 Jul 83 PM-Space Ants,420 Student Says Ants Probably Survived Space Trip By ROBERT WADE Associated Press Writer CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - Scientists and a group of enterprising students are still trying to find out what killed an ant colony that blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger. But one student says he thinks he has the answer. Anthony Trusty, 19, who helped design the experiment while attending Camden High School, said Monday a preliminary look at the colony showed the ants probably died when their living quarters dehydrated in the California desert after landing. A post-landing inspection showed the moss and dirt inside the L-shaped habitat had dried out. But videotapes made just after Challenger rocketed into space June 18 showed conditions inside the colony were acceptable, said Trusty, now a computer science major at Rutgers University. Trusty was the first of the present and former students and teachers from Camden and Woodrow Wilson high schools to say publicly that the more than 100 carpenter ants and their queen, Nora, survived orbit. Others involved in the project said detailed findings on whether the insects died while awaiting takeoff, in space, during re-entry or after touchdown won't be available until at least mid-August. ''The two schools are doing their studies and any conjectures as to the results of the whys, wheres and how is premature until these studies are completed,'' said a spokesman for RCA Corp., which sponsored the project. Although the colony's death was a disappointment, teachers say the program accomplished its goal of getting students from the rival inner-city schools involved in sciences, mathematics, computer programming and engineering. The 5 1/2-year-old project has won wide praise and the notice of President Reagan. Dr. Thomas Chavis, an RCA scientist who became involved in the program in 1978 and continued to advise the students despite his retirement two years ago, said the data from the experiment would help researchers determine how weightlessness affects species in a community settings. ''Does it disintergrate their ability to get along? Do they continue to work as a group or split up as individuals over long periods of weightlessness?'' said Chavis. He said scientists would find the data useful in efforts to colonize space for humans. Autopsies, in which the students will analyze the ants' remains, are under way to determine how long the insects survived after being sealed into a 30-gallon container filled with monitoring equipment in Florida in late April and placed aboard Challenger. ap-ny-07-12 0907EDT ***************