3,301 honeybees rode aboard NASA’s STS-41C mission, launched April 6, 1984, to see whether a colony could build hexagonal comb in microgravity. After early disorientation, the bees produced about 200 cm² of functional comb with thicker walls and smaller cells, while the queen laid roughly 35 eggs...
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In weightlessness, bees built a nest almost identical to that of a colony that remained on Earth. But a disturbing detail intrigued scientists: their queen never managed to hatch her eggs. The article Why NASA locked 3,301 bees in a space shuttle in 1984, and what they built in seven days without gravity appeared first on L'EnerGeek.