People like to have pets, but in a space colony there’ll be limited food supply, and the importance for recycling everything. That means there won’t be very much left over to have a pet of another species in a space colony. Therefore, what types of pets might you have? Having plants as pets might work, but sometimes that’s not enough for people.
Small rodents and mammals might work, but that too could be problematic, and we don’t know how well they will do in space. They might do better compared to humans, and they might reproduce well, but they would eat the colonists from house and home. Therefore taking cats and dogs to Space might not make any sense either – how about ferrets, rodents, or other smaller creatures; hard to say.
NASA has taken spiders into space and place them in a zero gravity environment, and they did just fine, they instantly created a web, and waited for insects to fly by to catch. Spiders are enjoyable to watch, and they are interesting, therefore they might make terrific pets for space colonists.
Yes, some Space colonists might be afraid of spiders, but if non-poisonous spiders were used, it wouldn’t be so bad, and maybe they may get used to it. It seems that humans need pets for some reason, something to look after, and perhaps it’s part of the genetic component and mental dispensation of nurturing a family which causes this in the human psyche.
If we deny this, and we don’t allow pets in our space colonies, we might find that some of the humans and colonists become depressed, upset, bored, and it might affect them in a negative way. Now then, I’m not positive if spiders will make the greatest pets for Space colonists, but it is an idea to throw out there and something to think on.
Perhaps we will need to do some studies to figure out which type of pets make the most sense for space colonists and what fellow species in the world we could take with us, if any. Indeed I hope you love this line of dialogue and these forward thinking thoughts. I ask that you please think about all this and consider it.