Tardigrades is found on every continent of the planet and can survive the most extreme environments on earth. Tardigrades, also known as a bear water, is a small microscopic creature with eight feet resembling a bear under a microscope. Small creatures can survive some very hard conditions, and NASA wants to understand how they can tolerate this environment.

NASA specifically wants to understand how bear water can tolerate the extreme environment where astronauts operate in space, including micro and increased radiation levels. NASA was conducting an experiment above the ISS called Cell Science-04 to reveal how Tardigrades bear the space environment.

NASA said he wanted to see what type of tactics used beings to survive in space and, over time, what tricks can be used by their descendants. In particular, researchers want to know whether the tactics of bearing water use between generations is the same or if they change. Scientists think that one way Tardigrades can survive in extreme conditions is to produce more antioxidants to fight dangerous changes in the body caused by increased radiation exposure.

Microscopic creatures have been seen increasing antioxidant production in response to radiation on earth. Scientists believe the increase in antioxidant production is one way Tardigrades evolved to resist the extreme environment on earth.

Researchers specifically want to see what happened to the Tardigrades gene when in space. They want to know which genes are turned on or turned off in response to short-term and long-term spaces. NASA said if one of the solutions used by these creatures is to increase the production of antioxidants, genes involved in the process must be affected. Tardigrades NASA will stay in a special science hardware station specifically developed for creatures.