Project SCAMPI - Help Us Send Shrimp to Space!

Team fundraiser

The SCAMPI Team and Tarek BEN SLIMANE are organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

In 2025, we - a group of students - will send Hawaiian red shrimp, macroalgae, and microbes to the International Space Station (ISS) in a self-sustaining ecosphere to better understand how aquatic ecosystems behave in microgravity.

As manufacturing and testing are not cheap - we need your help.

Who are we?

SCAMPI is a student-led project at The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon. The institute is a not-for-profit organization on a mission to democratize space exploration and build sustainable ecosystems capable of supporting life on the moon and beyond.

Why does it matter?

Creating sustainable ecosystems in space that can support life isn’t just science fiction—it’s essential for the future of long-term human space missions. This knowledge will shape how humans live and thrive beyond Earth. SCAMPI will be one of the first ecosystem-level experiments to go to the ISS, allowing us to investigate how biotic and abiotic factors of an environment work differently in microgravity.

How will we do it?

The SCAMPI Ecosphere will be hosted on the ISS for 90-180 days and then returned to Earth for analysis. While in orbit, we'll take pictures and videos and sensor measurements to understand how the ecosystem changes. On the ground, we'll conduct a range of genetic tests to evaluate individual and community responses to space stressors. As proponents of Open-Science, we'll ensure everything is published and publicly accessible.

How you can help

This mission is funded by a few small grants from universities and the French Space Agency (CNES). The amount raised was sufficient for projected expenses, but meeting the ISS standards required some special components to be manufactured at steep cost. Your support will help fund the production of the SCAMPI Module hardware, the crucial and lengthy testing phases, and ensure we have the necessary means to fulfill this mission. Every contribution brings us one step closer to democratizing space research—and to shaping the future of life in space.