Mice, Newts Retrieved After a Month Orbiting Earth At 345 Miles Up 85
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."
Cause of death (Score:5, Interesting)
Radiation? Life support system malfunctions? Launch related problems? Bit more details would make it interesting.
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What about lizard related problems?
Re:Cause of death (Score:5, Funny)
They failed to place their seat backs and tray tables in a fully upright position during takeoff and landing.
Re:Cause of death (Score:5, Funny)
and didn't turn their cell phones off.
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Yeah, and one of the mice was playing Angry Cats on his smartphone during the launch, causing devastating problems due to WiFi.
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Re:Cause of death (Score:4, 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 =)
Re:Cause of death (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).
Re:Cause of death (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.
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The moon isn't always at the night side of the Earth.
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Thanks, that is informative.
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Bone loss?
They where up there for a month!!!!
How should bone loss cause a death? Especially as you don't really need your bones in space ...
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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.
Re:Cause of death (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
Re:Cause of death (Score:4, Informative)
Hard landing in Kazakhstan desert would be another possibility.
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Bit more details would make it interesting.
They were delicious [theamberwolf.com]
Re:Cause of death (Score:5, 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.
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Wish I had karma, you just described a nightmare situation, I wouldn't want to be the one cleaning up the capsule after the trip.
Re:Cause of death (Score:5, Interesting)
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By "stress" he means "physiological stress", like the acceleration involved in launching. Not stress as in "boy, do I have a tight deadline".
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Proof that geckos are bad ass!
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Radiation? Life support system malfunctions? Launch related problems? Bit more details would make it interesting.
The PhysOrg [phys.org] article has a few snippets information:
The animals on board the Bion-M craft died because of equipment failure or due to the stresses of space, scientists said.....But at the end of the experiment, "less than half of the mice made it—but that was to be expected," Sychov told Russian news agencies. "Unfortunately, because of equipment failure, we lost all the gerbils."
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I think the Lizards ate half the mice.
No Amphibians Listed in Article (Score:1)
That headline should read "Mice, Lizards...".
Re:No Amphibians Listed in Article (Score:5, Informative)
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Sources:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1304/19bionm1/#.UZlBX39dAbE [spaceflightnow.com]
http://www.space.com/20732-russia-launches-animals-space-bion-m1.html [space.com]
Re:No Amphibians Listed in Article (Score:4, Funny)
The gecko's name is Newt. And he thinks he's an amphibian. And I love him.
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I thought he thought he was a former congressman
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Some of them got better.
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Newts [wikipedia.org] are amphibians!!!!
Not all of them; this newt is a cretin: A cretin named newt [wikipedia.org]
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who knows where the OP came up with newts...
Astronewts?
Incredible! (Score:5, Funny)
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A Jimp? No Senator, a Jimp, a Jimpanzee.
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and chinks are chinese, you racist
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One day, humans might even be able to go into space!
One day, the IRS might even be able to go into space!
One way.
The newt was actually a human . . . he got better.
I wonder (Score:2)
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I'm substantially more upset about the Mycon, who are occasionally hostile no matter what you say to them. Watch those spores...
Science: Space Lizards Superior to Squishy Mammals (Score:5, Funny)
Another victory for the Cardassian Empire!
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....but the Fish and crayfish didn't survive then!
There's no information given about the chordates and arthropoda in question.
That information might be classified.
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sadly, the water floated out of the gold fish bowl.
Capsule loading checklist (Score:1)
Lizards on a Space Capsule (Score:3)
Enough is enough! I have had it with these m____________ lizards on this m____________ space capsule!
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Maybe they despise profanity but couldn't resist the joke. I don't really enjoy it myself.
How many died of boredom vs bat'leth fights? (Score:3, Funny)
Also, given their skill in escapology, how many mice actually managed to make it off the ship?
Reportedly the capsule name was "NIMH" (Score:2)
I smell sequel!
I misread this (Score:2)
At first glance, I thought it said "Mice, Nerds Retrieved After a Month Orbiting Earth"...
Silver lining (Score:2)
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You can't talk. You harmed seven puppies just to make a Slashdot post!
These guys are actually doing real science from these deaths.
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Newt in orbit (Score:3)
Didn't he want to found a moon colony by the end of his second term?
Edges of Van Allen belts? (Score:3)
A while back I found a good chart of radiation levels and from memory 300 miles up was the point where radiation levels were too high for permanent human occupation. I wonder if this was the cause...
Lizards (Score:1)
Of course the lizards survived. How else do you think our glorious alien-lizard overlords survived the journey here?
WOMUMP (Score:2)
It's just another Bion / Biocosmos flight. (Score:3)
Simulated gravity...? (Score:2)
When are they going to do some experiments with centrifugal simulated gravity?