Scientists Took a Step in Understanding Reproduction in Space

If humanity’s future really is in the stars, what will that mean when it comes to, well, making more humans? As a number of experts have pointed out, venturing into space also means exposing people to more cosmic rays than they’d experience on Earth — something that could have serious ramifications on human reproductive systems. That’s a very big impediment to the concept of humans becoming a spacefaring species.

An experiment conducted on board the International Space Station might help to clarify the science of pregnancy in space. A study published earlier this month in the journal Stem Cell Reports involved studying what the authors describe as “cryopreserved mouse spermatogonial stem cells” that spent six months on the ISS.

The scientists studying the mouse stem cells found that, after six months, that time spent in space “did not increase apoptosis or DNA damage” in the cells. Once the cells returned to Earth, the scientists undertook a process of “spermatogonial transplantation,” and then let the mice to, well, whatever mice get up to when no one’s watching.

“It is important to examine how long we can store germ cells in the ISS to better understand the limits of storage for future human spaceflight,” said the study’s lead author, Mito Kanatsu-Shinohara of Kyoto University, in a statement.

In an article for Space.com on the Kyoto University scientists’ findings, Jessica Rendall pointed out that this is only one part of a much larger ongoing inquiry into space travel and reproduction. While these particular stem cells seem to have gone through this process with no ill effects, there are many other questions to answer before we reach the point of — for lack of a better phrase — space babies. But it’s a promising start.