September 23, 2013
Categories: Russia, Satellites, Science, USA

RIA Novosti – Russian and US scientists, who took part in biological experiments on board Russia’s Bion-M1 satellite in spring, have called on respective space authorities to ensure the continuation of research under this project.

Russia launched the Bion-1M satellite, its first biological research satellite since 2007, on a 30-day mission on April 19 to conduct biology, physiology and biotechnology research in orbit. The aim of the study was to help pave the way for future interplanetary flights including Mars missions.

The scientists said in a statement posted on the project’s official blog Saturday that the Bion experiments produced unique results that “will make a significant contribution to the field of space biology.”

“The participants of the Bion project appeal to all government agencies and organizations involved in space programs to offer active support and ensure further research initiated by the mission accomplished during the flight of this [Bion-M1] satellite,” the statement said.

Bion-M1 carried eight Mongolian gerbils, 45 mice, 15 geckos, slugs and snails and containers with various microorganisms and plants.

Most of the satellite’s “space passengers” failed to survive the flight due to technical faults in the spacecraft. The flight proved fatal for all the eight Mongolian gerbils, 39 out of 45 mice, and its cichlid fish. The geckos, slugs and snails were among the lucky survivors.

The scientists, however, deemed the mission successful as it had provided them for the first time with data describing the impact of zero gravity on blood vessels in the brain, on the spinal cord and inner ear, as well as on gene expression.

They insist that this kind of research is better suited for unmanned spacecraft as experiments with animals on board the orbital station have too many restrictions.

More from this category:
February 20, 2015

On February 19, 2015 Express-AM7 telecommunication space device and complex of service equipment were delivered to Yubileyny airfield complex where all necessary customs procedures were…

full story
September 4, 2013

Joint operations on assembling of Proton-M booster nose cone for Astra-2E telecommunication satellite launch started in 92-A50 integration building of Baikonur spaceport, – Khrunichev Centre…

full story
November 9, 2015

ISS flight schedule of russian spacecrafts was changed since the first launch of Progress MS new generation cargo vehicle was shifted from November to December. “Because…

full story
March 3, 2014

ISS-39/40 crews are having very important preflight training stage in GCTC now. During previous 2 weeks cosmonauts and astronauts have been passing exams on manual…

full story
January 30, 2014

According to Eurockot company responsible for launch services with the help of Rokot booster European Space Agency (ESA) made arrangements about Sentinel-5p launch by this…

full story
August 7, 2019

The “Proton-M” heavy-class rocket, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on August 6, 2019 at 00:56 (Moscow time), successfully put into the calculated orbit the spacecraft…

full story
October 24, 2014

Roscosmos cosmonauts Mukhtar Aimakhanov, Oleg Blinov, Pyotr Dubrov, Sergey Korsakov, Dmitry Petelin, Andrey Fedyayev, Nickolay Tchub and cosmonaut candidate Anna Kikina will be having mountain…

full story
January 16, 2020

On January 15, 2020, the Russian members of the ISS-63 main crew Nikolay Tikhonov and Andrey Babkin passed the test training on docking and “Orlan-ISS”…

full story