A team of six
intrepid mice is going where no rodents have gone before: The International
Space Station.
The small
rodents are part of an Italian study investigating the effects of bone
loss in space, and researchers have set the mice up in orbital style.
"Basically,
it's a little hotel," said Joe Delai, Discovery's payload manager, of the cages
holding the space mice. "They have a room and a place to eat and sleep."
That creature
comfort is key, he said. After all, the little mice will be living in space for
at least three months before hitching a ride back home.
Mice have
flown in space countless times before, even on space shuttles headed for the
International Space Station. But the critters always stayed aboard those
shuttles and returned home, said NASA's space station program scientist Julie
Robinson. The longest any mouse has lived in space has been about 30 days, and
that was while flying on an unmanned satellite, she added.
"This is a brand
new technology for carrying rodents into space," Robinson said of the mouse enclosure.
"This will be, by far, the longest period of time that mice have been maintained
in the space station environment in an experimental setting."
Mouse
house in space
The mice
are living in a special experiment drawer delivered
to the station late Sunday by astronauts aboard NASA's space shuttle Discovery.
The drawer is split into partitions to give each mouse ample living room.
"Each mouse
is in its own little compartment," Robinson told SPACE.com. "The compartments
have screens around them so the mice can hold on with their feet so that they're
in control of their environment...so they're not stressed out."
The mice
get food and water through automated systems, which astronauts can refill when
needed. A different system turns on lights to simulate day and night, and
cameras will monitor their progress, Robinson said.
"We take
good care of them," she added.
Astronaut
Nicole Stott, who arrived at the station aboard Discovery and joined the outpost's
crew early Monday morning, checked in on the mice shortly after the shuttle
docked. She apparently found them in good health.
"All is
nominal," Stott radioed Mission Control in her status check. The drawer will be
stored in a refrigerator-sized rack inside the station's Japanese Kibo
laboratory with astronauts checking in on them every now and then, Robinson
said.
The mice
will return to Earth in November, along with Stott, aboard a different space
shuttle. They were launched to the space
station for the Italian Space Agency, which is overseeing the bone-loss
study.
Bone-saving
genes
Three of
the six space mice have a special gene that combats osteoporosis, a condition that
leads to bone loss over time resulting in weak, brittle bones. A similar group
of six mice is being studied on Earth as a control group.
On Earth, osteoporosis
affects women more than men, particularly after menopause, NASA has said. But
in space, astronauts routinely lose bone and muscle mass because of their
prolonged exposure to microgravity. Researchers hope the experiment may lead to
better treatment for osteoporosis on Earth and protection for astronauts on
long space missions.
If the mice
with the special gene suffer less bone loss than those without when compared
to the control group, it "gives you reason to go down a whole new set of
pathways to tackle osteoporosis on Earth," Robinson said. The experiment could potentially
lead to more closely tailored therapies for osteoporosis based on an individual's
specific needs, she added.
The bone-loss study is only one of 21 experiments that will be performed using the space-station mice. Thirteen of those studies are based in Italy, with the other
eight spread across NASA and the space agencies of Japan, Canada, Germany, as well as the member countries of the European Space Agency.
"All the
different physiological systems are being studied," Robinson said.
Discovery's
seven-astronaut crew is in the middle of a 13-day mission to deliver new
science gear and supplies to the space station. They will attach a massive cargo pod packed with 8 tons of new supplies to the station on Monday. Three spacewalks are planned to upgrade
and maintain the orbiting laboratory.
The
astronauts are also delivering a new treadmill named after comedian
Stephen Colbert. The mouse drawer compartments, however, do not have
recreational treadmills for their rodent tenants, Robinson said.
SPACE.com
is providing complete coverage of Discovery's STS-128 mission to the
International Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for shuttle mission
updates and a link to NASA TV.
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