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Spiders will make great pets for space colonists

Humans like to have pets, but in a space colony there will be a limited food supply and the importance of recycling everything. That means there won’t be long left to have a pet of another species in a space colony. So what kinds of pets could you have? Keeping plants as pets might work, but sometimes that’s not enough for humans.

Small mammals and rodents could work, but that could also be problematic, and we don’t know how well they’ll do in space. They could do better than humans, and they could reproduce well, but then they would eat the colonists away from home and home. So taking cats and dogs into space wouldn’t make any sense either: how about ferrets, mice, or other small creatures? Hard to say.

NASA took spiders into space and put them in a zero-gravity environment, and they did well, immediately creating a web and waiting for the insects to fly in to catch them. There was no insect to catch, but they went ahead and built their home, and followed their genetic plan. Spiders are fun to watch and interesting, so they could make great pets for space colonists.

Yes, some space colonists may be afraid of spiders, but if non-venomous spiders were used, it wouldn’t be so bad and maybe they’ll get used to it. It seems that humans need pets for a reason, something to care for, and perhaps it is part of their genetic makeup and psychological disposition to raise a family that causes this in the human psyche.

If we deny this and don’t allow pets on our space colonies, some of the humans and colonists may become depressed, upset, bored, and that could affect them in a negative way. Now, I’m not sure if spiders will be the best pets for space colonists, but it’s an idea to throw around and something to think about. There will be pros and cons to taking any species into space, or living on another planet, as well as the challenges humans will face.

We may need to do some research to find out what kind of pets make the most sense for space colonists and what other species on earth we can take with us, if any. In fact, I hope you appreciate this line of talk and these progressive thoughts. I ask you to please consider all this and think about it.