Russia launches animals into space on one-month journey!
On Friday, a Russian rocket carrying a capsule of mice, newts, gerbils, geckos, and various other species was blasted off into orbit around the earth for a one-month mission. The cruel experiment is designed to see how various life forms react in space for long stretches of time and is expected to help pave the way for manned flights to Mars. The animals will be monitored from the ground are expected to return home alive. Yet unfortunately upon their arrival, they will be "humanely euthanized" in order to collect data.
The rocket carried the Bion-M1 space capsule, which is filled with enclosures for 45 mice, eight Mongolian gerbils, 15 geckos and numerous other species. They are expected to spend a month in orbit, flying 357 miles above Earth while scientists on the ground monitor the health of the capsule's passengers.
Bion-M1 is Russia's first mission dedicated to launching animals into space in 17 years. The last Bion mission carried rhesus monkeys, geckos and amphibians into orbit for 15 days in 1996.
And while there have been other animal-centric launches since that time, the Bion-M1 mission is the longest flight of its kind in the Russian science program's 40-year history. For this reason, Bion-M1 is designed to help scientists understand how long-duration human spaceflight might affect astronauts, Rayl said. (another one useless, experimentation on animals!)
After a month in orbit, the Bion-M1 spacecraft will fall to Earth and scientists will collect the animals and run tests.
While the mice, gerbils, geckos and other creatures should survive their plunge through the Earth's atmosphere, scientists will need to humanely euthanize the animals in order to get the data they need, Rayl added.
Source: FoxNews/ Miriam Kramer/ April 19
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