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Mouse 'Hotel' in Space Receives First Rodent Guests

by Lee Bains on August 31, 2009 at 10:59 AM


Yesterday, six mice boarded the International Space Station to boldly participate in an Italian Space Agency-sponsored study of bone degeneration, Space.com reports. These six will be the first rodents to spend an extended period of time on the space station, where they will be housed and studied until November.

Three of those space varmints bear a gene that, scientists believe, fights osteoporosis, while the other three are just plain old everyday mice. While those six careen through space, a similarly outfitted group of six will be studied here on Earth as a control group. Staying in a drawer designed to offer a comfortable habitat in spite of the zero gravity, the space vermin are expected to calmly roam around (the sides and ceilings of) their cages, eating, drinking, and sleeping just as they would back home. "Basically, it's a little hotel," Joe Delia, of the shuttle Discovery, told Space.com. "They have a room and a place to eat and sleep."

After long periods of exposure to microgravity, many astronauts' bones and muscles atrophy, previous studies have found. With that in mind, scientists hope this experiment will help to diagnose and treat cases of osteoporosis in humans, both in space and on Earth. That all sounds well and good, but if scientists are all that concerned with astronauts and their bones, shouldn't they ditch the mice and get cows, instead? [From: Space.com]

Tags: health, international space station, InternationalSpaceStation, mice, osteoporosis, science, space, top, zero gravity, ZeroGravity

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