 Golden orb-weaving spiders are pretty beautiful, but as I'm an arachnophobe, I wouldn't want to go anywhere near them. However, they have been launched into space, as well as many other animals. And that got me wondering, should humans send animals into space at all? And will we be bringing our dogs with us on the journey to Mars? This is your SpacePod from May 13th, 2015. As always, I try to bring you information about the experiments that you want to know more about. Robert Volrath left a comment on YouTube asking about spiders in microgravity, so that's what we'll be talking about today. Two golden orb-weaving spiders, or Nephila clavipes, were launched to the International Space Station aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour as part of STS-134. The spiders were housed in specialised chambers where they built webs and ate flies. The chambers were automatically recorded using video cameras, and the footage showed that the webs built in microgravity were nearly the same as spider webs built on Earth, just a little bit more round. This experiment was very visual, as opposed to other space station research, where the data is presented as graphs, figures or just numbers. And that was really important because it allowed the general public, especially children, to engage in this research. In fact, some schools were picked to house spiders in their classrooms, and the children were able to compare the webs that their spiders built to the webs built by the spider-nots. Hopefully, this was able to inspire them to pursue STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. I've previously talked about the use of animals in space research, especially how some animals are used for multiple studies. In fact, in this experiment, the flies that were used to feed the spiders were also video-tracked to check for any changes in their flight patterns due to microgravity. And that got me thinking about the other animals that we've sent into space. As well as spiders, humans have sent numerous other animals into space, including cats, dogs, monkeys, chimpanzees, jellyfish, butterflies, turtles, the list is just endless. And I would really like to do a more in-depth video on the animals that have been sent into space. So if that's something that you guys will be interested in, please let me know. Anyway, we know that our journey in expanding human presence in space will start first with Mars. But will we be bringing our pets with us? There are specially designed spacesuits for dogs that allow them to survive in microgravity. But can you imagine taking your dog for a walk on Mars? Where would you teach it to do its business? And what if the dog happens to run away and you can't just tell it that its oxygen supply is just about to run out? There are currently no pets aboard the International Space Station and there are a few ethical dilemmas to consider before that might happen. Spaceflight is incredibly stressful for dogs and the first dog to orbit the Earth, Laker, more than doubled her heart rate upon launch. And that heart rate didn't come back down to pre-launch levels for more than three hours. And with a dog, you can't just tell it that it's going to be okay. And in the case of Laker, it wasn't. This may seem like a far-fetched topic, but I think it merits further discussion, especially in the context of our future homes in space. When does a Martian outpost become a true Martian city? Perhaps when some of the creature comforts from home are present. I'd love to know your thoughts on whether we should send animals into space, either as pets or for scientific study. Leave a comment below or let us know via social media. Thank you for watching and I'd love to give a huge thank you to all the citizens of tomorrow that helped contribute to this space pod. If you'd like more information about how you can become a patron of these space pods, head over to patreon.com slash space pod. My name is Lisa Stojinovsky and I'll see you next week.