Preparing for human migration? Russia plans to send 75 rodents into space

According to the Russian Satellite News Agency, Vladimir Sechov, deputy director of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the Russian Aerospace magazine that Russia plans to launch the "Bion-M" 2 satellite into Earth orbit in 2023-2024, which will carry 75 rodents.

On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in the history of human spaceflight to carry animals (biosatsats), and a dog named "Laika" flew into space. Since then, the Soviet Union and Russia have carried out a total of 12 such satellite launches.

The last time was in 2013, 45 rats, along with gerbils, geckos, snails and crustaceans, fish and various microbes, were sent into space, completing more than 70 experiments in 30 days.

It is reported that rodents are similar to humans in terms of blood composition, tissue structure, physiological response, etc. Sechov noted that the biosatellite program must continue to be launched beyond other higher orbits and beyond the Earth's magnetosphere. Only in this way can we grasp the adverse effects of more outer space environments on the human body.

Sechov revealed that in order to study the impact of interplanetary flight on living organisms, Russia is establishing a "return-MKA" laboratory, which can launch animals to an altitude of 200,000 kilometers.

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