JSC (AV) - Skylab 4 - Gypsy Moth Science Demonstration - Gibson Part 2

Description

FR. A212 SKYLAB 4 KINESCOPE TAPE 5, PART 3 of 3 Hello! Welcome to Skylab 3 and the Land of the Moth. I have right here in these two vials essentially a growing number of companions. These are two vials containing eggs of Gypsy Moths - one is tame and one is wild, that means one laboratory produced and one from the wilds. The objective of having these along with us is to see if we can prematurely induce by (garble) in zero-G a production of the moth or diapause - hatching of the eggs. The normal hatching for these fellows that I'm holding right here on the ground (garble) February or March. Uh we've been up here a relatively short time, and they have not expected to see I don't think anything quite this early. We have in the wild essentially five to six moths which are visible and perhaps an equal number of partially hatched or partial emergence from the eggs. Now if we can find a way such as use of zero-G for prematurely inducing the hatching, then this opens up a way of producing them in large numbers and understanding just what some of the mechanisms may be. They will greatly aid the laboratory rearing of these animals, or moths, if you will, and enable people to introduce large quantities of (garble) moths which can be used to decrease the population of moths will turn out to be a great nuisance (?). What I'd like to do now is move in a little closer and give you a close up view, as close as we can, of the eggs and some of the moths. These eggs turn out to be about the size of poppy seeds and even with your eye right next to the vial, they are pretty hard to see, but we'll put a closeup lens on the TV and give it a try. The closeup view at our convenience on our 85-day flight - not much, but it's all we got. On the top of the screen is the vial containing the tame moths or larvae, those which are bred in the laboratory, and on the right are ones which are wild, and the ones on the right, which should be on your bottom - the one on the top is the tame one and the one on the bottom is wild the ones on the bottom are the ones which have hatched. A relatively small percentage of them have hatched but there's still a significant quantity. There is about five or six which have fully hatched and have been out crawling around - or have ceased to crawl, and the other five or six or partial emergent, that is, they've come partially out - that's as far as they got. Now, uh, first of all, the ones on the bottom - you can see the large aggregate as I shake these around - the large aggregate right now is right behind the tape, we'll try Page 2 to get it to the bottom right here - now on the bottom of the tube - and you can see this is in contrast to the ones in the vial which have not hatched at all, they're spread pretty much uniformly, which is as you would expect poppy seeds to spread out - the aggregate comes from those which have hatched and are crawling over their potential bretheren and those who have just partially hatched - they all tend to stick together in the world of moths. Now we 11 zoom in a little bit more and I'll try and show you some of the details and I'll have to be fairly meticulous in trying to give you a reasonable focus so just stay with me until I get all the way moved in here then try to move this so we can give you a reasonable picture okay, the right side of your picture is the top of the container and we've got the cotton down in there. Now there's one which is on the top, but I'll have to rotate the vial for you to see it, so bear with me and I'll have it right back for you. To the right in the very center of your picture now is one that has emerged to crawl and bit the dust about three days ago or the cotton, if you will I just to me, with the resolution I have on my monitor, it looks just like two eggs stuck together, but it really is a moth which has emerged and now maybe I can give you a little better view of it I think we've got some eggs (garble) it's right about the center of your screen unfortunately, the little guy is right in the edge of the vial there where light transmission is distorted and we'll just go right on down the vial, let's see if we can pick up that aggregate, and I hope your resolution of your monitor is better than mine just leave it out here for awhile - they're in that aggregate maybe you'll be able to see a few there, I think I've gotten rid of the glare for you this certainly has provided a little bit of a diversion for us doing a lot of good Earth Resources recently solar observations, learned a lot about ourselves medically, man in general, and we've been viewing a comet, Northern Lights, and doing a lot of maneuvering and all on CMG's, (garble) has been interesting, and this has just been one additional feature. Hope you've enjoyed seeing it. We'll keep you folks in on what happens - so long for now.

Collection

Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Series

Moving Images Relating to Documentary Stock Footage