Lizards astronauts could not stand the test flight – Utro.Ru

The cause and time of death of the spacecraft “Foton-M” №4 five lizards, geckos trying to figure out specialists from the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP RAS), but to no avail, “Interfax-AVN.”

According to the head of the laboratory, “Biological human livelihoods” IBMP RAS, program manager of the biological part of the project “Foton-M” Vladimir Sychev, it is difficult to understand why they were killed. Maybe weightlessness had such an impact may have something. Because during ground control experiment, where the parameters of the medium were the same, geckos were alive, we can say that it is not habitat, not the temperature, not humidity, not atmospheric composition, and some specific factor during a space flight killed them.

“It could be anything. This can be weightlessness, radiation factor stress. difficult to determine. No sensible ideas no” – added Sychev.

Also, experts have not been able to determine the time of death geckos, opinions diverged. Initially it was assumed that the lizards were killed in a day or two before planting, but an autopsy revealed that it is not. At the same time, the geckos were killed and a few weeks before returning to Earth, as the tail, where lizards stockpile nutrients are not lost.

To help determine the cause of death of geckos astronauts could videotape flight, but the camera is out of order in the third week of work.

geckos autopsy showed that at the beginning of the flight they ate normally, but then began some problems with the spacecraft itself, and they at low temperature is stopped. In this case, the cause of their death, yet, in a sharp pressure drop, and not in a cold snap and hunger.

By the way, except for the lizards in the spacecraft were the fly Drosophila, micro-organisms and seeds of higher plants that survived the flight.

Despite the deaths of all five geckos (four females and one male), a scientist evaluates flight “Foton-M” №4 as successful. “Everything went well in all experiments except for the geckos. For all its problems, which were proved to be very successful flight, again a record – 42 days none unmanned scientific apparatus before that did not fly,” – said the scientist.

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