The Mascot of SFSCI is a Tardigrade named Stamets
Tardigrades are also called Water Bears and Moss Piglets and are among the most resilient animals known on Planet Earth. Individual species are able to survive extreme conditions that would quickly kill most other forms of life – such as exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme pressures (both high and low), air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, and starvation and some individual species of tardigrades have even survived exposure to outer space. It is no wonder the STARFLEET Sciences Member Manual, © 2024, All rights reserved
Tardigrade was chosen as the star of the spore drive in the franchise series Star Trek Discovery.
Discovery’s Science Officer (played by Actor Anthony Rudd) is named after the real renowned mycologist Paul Stamets, who has extensively studied Earth’s mycelial network on Earth. While the spore drive and the universal mycelial network is pure Star Trek fiction written with some great imagination, we think the Tardigrade is one tough beast and represents SFSCI with distinction In honor of the real world mycologist Paul Stamets and the Discovery Science Officer, we have named our mascot Stamets.