NASA shoots tardigrades to space to help improve astronaut’s health.

The tardi are found on all the continents of the planet and can survive some of the most extreme environments of the Earth. Tardíriados, also known as water bears, are small microscopic creatures with eight legs that resemble a bear under the microscope. The small creatures can survive some extremely harsh conditions, and NASA wants to understand how these environments can tolerate.

NASA wants to specifically understand how the water bear can tolerate the extreme environment where astronauts operate in space, including microgravity and increased radiation levels. NASA is performing an experiment on board the ISS called Cell Cell Science-04 to reveal how Tardigrades support the spatial environment.

NASA says that you want to see what kind of tactics the creatures use to survive in space and, over time, what tricks can use their offspring. Specifically, researchers want to know whether tactical water bears are used between generations are the same or if they change. Scientists think that a way in which late themselves could survive extreme conditions would be to produce more antioxidants to combat harmful changes in the body caused by greater exposure to radiation.

The microscopic creatures have been seen to increase the production of antioxidants in response to radiation on Earth. Scientists believe that greater production of antioxidants is one of the ways it evolved tardigrades to withstand extreme environments on Earth.

Researchers specifically want to see what happens with dentírid genes when it is in space. They want to know which genes are on or off in response to space light in the short and long term. NASA says that if one of the solutions used by creatures is to increase the production of antioxidants, the genes involved in this process should be impacted. The delayed NASA will live within a special science hardware station developed specifically for creatures.