Geckos on the “Photon” died from oxygen starvation – BBC News

In the case of the death of geckos on the satellite “Foton-M4″ a new version – the cause of death could be lizards hypoxia (lack of oxygen). This was announced today at a press conference in ITAR-TASS Sergey Savelyev, head of the Laboratory Institute of Human Morphology of RAMS.

Hypoxia, he said, was caused by the pressure jump. “There is histological evidence that shows that the capillaries were packed with red blood cells, lungs are compressed,” – said the head of the experiment with the geckos. However, he clarified that the jump was with decreasing pressure, which led to almost instant death of animals.

The satellite “Foton-M4″, which was carrying four females and a male gecko, was launched from Baikonur on 19 July . At the appointed time the satellite is not released into orbit with him were lost, restore it was only on July 26.

The

biological part of the mission “Photon-M4″ included eight experiments. After returning to Earth satellite revealed that all geckos died. The main purpose of the experiment was to insemination in weightlessness. Lizards had to give birth in orbit.

Earlier in the Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences have advanced the theory that the lizards on the “Photon” died due to a technical error. On August 8 satellite has lowered in temperature to 15 degrees, leading to a slower metabolism in lizards and their subsequent destruction.