NANFA-- Space Fish

Jeffrey Fullerton (tcmajorr_at_westol.com)
Wed, 19 Nov 2003 15:41:40 -0500

Since Moonman brought up the subject of space habitats - it brought back
memory of an idea regarding a wierd idea for aquaculture in orbit. It
involves raising fish in highly humidified air in a freefall environment
(zero-G). The logic goes that their gills would not collapse in the
absence of gravity and would be able to function the same as they would
in water so long as they were kept moist.

Sounds really neat but I'm not sure if the fish would like it or even be
able to move about since they are adapted to moving thru water and not
air. Even humans can't really swim thru air in zero G- but have to push
off from a solid surface. We might be able to devise artificial wings to
allow muscle powered flight in zero G or low gravity environments like a
lunar habitat dome.

I have a feeling that when we do go into space to live we will probably
live in spinning habitats because gravity is important to maintaing our
long term health and it's also conveninet to make things work- like
plumbing for instance. We'll probably raise fish too- in tanks in some
kind of gravity feild so the water will stay where it belongs and can be
easily drained when necessary.

Jeff

> The fear of any commitment beyond one or two years is the
> symptom of disease, signaling a fundamentally hopeless view of
> the future.
> Gerard K. O'Neill -2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future
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