Ten mice didn’t survive space flight in Bion-M No. 2 capsule – director of Institute for Biomedical Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences
MOSCOW. Sept 19 (Interfax) – Ten of the 75 mice that went on an orbital flight in the scientific capsule Bion-M No.2 did not survive the space experiment, Academician Oleg Orlov, director of the Institute for Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said.
“As for the results: we lost ten of the 75 mice. With such result, we are all satisfied, primarily scientists and the flight organizers. The cause of these animals’ death is different. Because these are male mice, aggressive animals, with difficult intragroup conflicts. The data, of course, didn’t disappear, we will learn at what stages and why they died,” Orlov was quoted as saying by the institute’s press service.
The capsule landed normally, he said. “It is early to speak about scientific results, but all biological objects have been taken to Earth and they are all in good condition. It makes it possible to conduct the studies that scientists have planned. Some of the pre-flight experiments take place here, right in the field conditions. The biological objects will later be taken to Moscow laboratories, where the studies will continue,” Orlov said.
Roscosmos said on Friday the capsule from the spacecraft Bion-M No.2 with animals and plants aboard had landed in the Orenburg region after a month-long orbital flight.
“Consistent with the schedule, the biological materials will return to laboratories of the Institute’s State Research Center in Moscow at midnight on September 20,” the institute said.
The Bion-M No. 2 scientific vehicle was launched on August 20 from Baikonur cosmodrome using a Soyuz-2.1b rocket. Seventy-five mice, drosophila flies, cell cultures, plants, samples of grain, grain legumes and technical crops, and also seeds of plants grown from seeds that were in space earlier went on a one-month flight. Mushrooms, lichens, microorganisms, bacteria, and other materials also went on the space flight.
Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Bakanov said on August 19 experts would consider the possibility of sending a human to the polar orbit based on the results of the Bion-M 2 experiment. The experiment results will become known several months after its launch, he said.
The Institute for Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences said on August 28 the Bion-M No. 2 flight was going normally and the animals were comfortable.
The purpose of the project is to study the influence of radiation and weightlessness on living organisms on the polar orbit.