Learning from Antstronauts on the International Space Station
21.08.2023 - 11:57
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
Header image: NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio uses a video camera to photograph the Ant Forage Habitat. Image credit: NASA
Ecologist Deborah Gordon studies ants, looking for insights into how they solve collective search problems. After studying ants in the hills around Silicon Valley, the desert, tropical forests and even her kitchen, Prof Gordon had the idea to send her research subjects to space. During the Ants in Space CSI-06 study on the International Space Station, Prof Gordon investigated how an ant colony adapts to searching for resources in microgravity.
The experiment launched pavement ants (Tetramorium caespitum) into space, a common species across the United States. The ant-ics of the antstronauts inspired scientists and students alike. However, the investigation has a serious side – collecting data about ants can teach us about algorithms related to robotics and the internet.
“This was an opportunity to see how ants solve the problem of collective search in microgravity. Ants are very diverse ecologically, so they have many diverse search algorithms, and we know only a few of them. Understanding how ants search in different conditions could have applications for robotics.
Ant-based algorithms could help develop cheaper, more efficient robotic searching and exploration strategies. Whether on Earth or another planet, there are benefits to being able to operate missions with minimal information and no central control.
Ant colonies function without leaders, as queens serve only to reproduce; ants secrete chemicals to leave trails or communicate with their colony colleagues.
Analysing how different ant species have evolved to search their environments could help us to learn more about other systems like data
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