There are several animals that were able to fulfill the dream of many people of traveling to space to fulfill astronaut duties.
The POT sent a wide variety of animals to space since its inception, mainly for study the effects of microgravity, cosmic radiation and other space factors in living organisms before sending human astronauts.
Microgravity or weightlessness, which is a characteristic of the space environment, has significant effects on living organisms. Animals allow us to study how the body responds to the absence of gravity, since humans will also experience these effects on prolonged missions.
Also, it is proven that outer space is full of cosmic radiation, which is much more intense than the radiation we are exposed to on Earth. Animals sent into space are used to study how radiation affects the organism at a cellular level and molecular.
Astronaut in space
Pixabay
What are the animals that traveled to space?
fruit flies
Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) were the first living things that NASA sent into space in 1947 on a V-2 rocket. These flies were chosen because of their rapid life cycle and because they share a large number of genes with humans. Their mission was to study the effects of cosmic radiation and other factors on DNA.
Monkeys
NASA sent monkey ovaries into space, starting with Albert II in 1949, he was the first monkey to reach space on a V-2 rocket.
Able and Baker, other monkeys sent in 1959, were the first to return alive from a suborbital space mission, representing a breakthrough in studies of the physiological response to weightlessness.
Mice
Mice have been sent into space since the 1950s. As small mammals with a biology similar to that of humans, mice are ideal for studying the effects of microgravity on the body, especially in areas such as bone and muscle loss. , and immune responses.
Fish
In the 1970s and more recent missions, NASA sent fish, including zebrafish, into space to study how microgravity affects their balance, navigation, and development.
Source: Ambito
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