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Mice, Newts Retrieved After a Month Orbiting Earth At 345 Miles Up

Posted by timothy on from the eye-of-space-newt-was-called-for dept.

The Associated Press (as carried by the Washington Post) reports that a living payload of newts and mice has been retrieved after a month orbiting earth in a Russian space capsule at an altitude of 345 miles, far higher than the ISS's orbital distance of 205 miles. Says the story: "Fewer than half of the 53 mice and other rodents who blasted off on April 19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome survived the flight, Russian news agencies reported, quoting Vladimir Sychov, deputy director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems and the lead researcher. Sychov said this was to be expected and the surviving mice were sufficient to complete the study, which was designed to show the effects of weightlessness and other factors of space flight on cell structure. All 15 of the lizards survived, he said. The capsule also carried small crayfish and fish."

16 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Cause of death by Jerry+Smith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Radiation? Life support system malfunctions? Launch related problems? Bit more details would make it interesting.

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    1. Re:Cause of death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They failed to place their seat backs and tray tables in a fully upright position during takeoff and landing.

    2. Re:Cause of death by flayzernax · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I wonder if it's far enough to get out of the earths magnetosphere. By the way if they didn't mention problems with the experiment its probably safe to assume everything went up and operated fine. Don't know till someone releases a paper in a journal though.

      I would wager bone loss in the mammals and weightlessness are the biggest contributing factors to death/disease. It could have been something else like mice getting upset and turning on each other because of their environment. Even simple non aggressive animals like frogs can become aggressive due to boredom and environmental reasons.

      Perhaps a lower metabolism benefited the lizards/newts. Time to RTFA =)

    3. Re:Cause of death by JustOK · · Score: 4, Funny

      and didn't turn their cell phones off.

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    4. Re:Cause of death by multisync · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hard landing in Kazakhstan desert would be another possibility.

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    5. Re:Cause of death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I wonder if it's far enough to get out of the earths magnetosphere.

      No. Let me put it this way, on the day side, Earth's magnetosphere extends more than twice as far as geosynchronous satellites. On the night side it extends far, far past the Moon (which will encompass the Moon if it happens to be there at the time).

    6. Re:Cause of death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Bit more details would make it interesting.

      They've only just retrieved the thing! Modern equipment is good, but we can't just wave a magic wand/tricorder over some dead mice and get a diagnosis yet.

      They're dead, Jim

    7. Re:Cause of death by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Radiation? Life support system malfunctions? Launch related problems? Bit more details would make it interesting.

      Also, how did they dispose of the dead mice, and mouse poop? If the dead and decaying mice, and mouse poop, were floating around with the living mice, that would not be a healthy environment, and may explain some of the subsequent deaths.

    8. Re:Cause of death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Do you know something the rest of us don't?

      Nope, he knows something that you don't.

      The Moon isn't always on the nightside of Earth.

    9. Re:Cause of death by capebretonsux · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Without a doubt, heart attacks. I work with lab mice every day, and they're very high strung creatures. When we order mice from a supply house they often pack in one or two 'extra' mice in the event a death occurs in transit. This is just regular shipping via truck/plane, so the stresses of going through a launch into orbit being so much more I'd expect a high mortality rate.

  2. Incredible! by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can you believe these animals survived? Who knows what they'll try next, maybe a dog or chimp! One day, humans might even be able to go into space!

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  3. Re:No Amphibians Listed in Article by idji · · Score: 4, Informative

    No LIZARDS on this spacecraft. Newts are amphibians!!!!

  4. Re:No Amphibians Listed in Article by dtremenak · · Score: 3, Informative
    The animals on the spacecraft were geckos, which certainly are lizards. There were no newts launched on Bion-M1, nor any other kind of amphibian.

    Sources:
    http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1304/19bionm1/#.UZlBX39dAbE
    http://www.space.com/20732-russia-launches-animals-space-bion-m1.html

  5. Re:No Amphibians Listed in Article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The gecko's name is Newt. And he thinks he's an amphibian. And I love him.

  6. Science: Space Lizards Superior to Squishy Mammals by ZombieRoboNinja · · Score: 5, Funny

    Another victory for the Cardassian Empire!

  7. How many died of boredom vs bat'leth fights? by kfsone · · Score: 3, Funny

    Also, given their skill in escapology, how many mice actually managed to make it off the ship?

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