Humans like to keep 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 much left to have a pet of another species on 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 might work, but that too could 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 away. 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, they immediately created a web and waited for the insects to fly in to catch them. There weren’t any bugs to catch, but they went ahead and built their home, and followed their genetic blueprint. Spiders are fun to watch and are interesting, therefore they could make great pets for space settlers.
Yes, some space colonists may be afraid of spiders, but if non-venomous spiders were used, it wouldn’t be too 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 in our space colonies, it is possible that some of the humans and colonists will become depressed, upset, bored, and that could affect them in a negative way. Now, I’m not sure if spiders will make 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 of taking any species into space, or living on another planet, just like the challenges humans will face.
We may need to do some research to find out what kinds 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 conversation and these progressive thoughts. I ask you to please consider all of this and think about it.