Russia sent 75 mice to space in a Soviet design capsule. All have returned except 10

A few days ago landed in the Russian steppe A capsule falls from the sky reminiscent of the dawn of the space race. It was the descent module of the Bion-M mission No. 2, launched a month before the space from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Its crew: cell cultures, seeds, 1,500 fruit flies and 75 male mice, of which 65 have survived.

30 days of polar orbit. The ship orbit the Earth from Pole to Polo to expose its passengers to the levels of cosmic radiation that the crew of the future Russian Space Station will receive. That is, 33% higher than those experienced by the International Space Station.

The mice They were divided into groups: Some genetically modified, other treaties with a special medicine and a control group. The objective was to quantify the damage of radiation in its body and test countermeasures such as drugs or shields that could have direct applications both in the Earth’s orbit and in future trips to the Moon and Mars.

The new Russian cosmonauts. They will not go down in history like the Laika dog, but the mice have played their role. The mission has been a success and the 10 specimens that died did so for reasons that the director of the Russian biomedical problems, Oleg Orlov, attributes that they were male miceaggressive and with “complex intragrupal conflicts.”

Is it a success that 10 mice died? If we compare it with the previous mission, it is. In the first Bion-M, which took place in 2013, a failure in the life support systems caused the death of 29 of the 45 mice on board. That now 87% of animals have survived, and that deaths occur due to natural or behavioral causes, it is a great improvement.

A capsule like Yuri Gagarin. Of course, the return of the mice has not been precisely quiet. As explained in detail Daniel Marín’s disseminator In its blog, the Bion-M spacecraft is a spherical capsule derived from the Vostok, the same that led Yuri Gagarin to space. This design does not allow maneuvers to soften the reentry, so landing is somewhat aggressive.

For sample, the capsule caused a small fire in the ombourg steppe after impacting the ground. But the cause was not the impact, but the solid fuel retrocohetes located in the parachute lines. The fire was quickly controlled.

And the flies? As we said, the biosatellite also transported a complete biological laboratory with fungi, lichens, seeds and about 1,500 fruit flies, part of a multigenerational experiment. According to the Russian Academy of Sciencesthe flies that traveled in the Bion-M No. 2 are the seventh generation of a line that originated in the International Space Station.

During the 30 -day mission, the ninth and tenth generation were born. The plan is that, after a few more generations on Earth, their descendants are sent again to the International Space Station, continuing an insect lineage that has never known normal terrestrial gravity.

Now, scientists have months of work analyzing recovered biological data and samples. The 65 surviving mice and their interplanetary travel companions are a valuable source of information that will help make the next space trips safer.

Image | ROSCOSMOS

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