According to the pictures sent back from a high-resolution camera, the 600 embryos, which were put under the camera, developed from the 2-cell stage, an early-on embryonic cleavage stage, to blastocyst, the stage where noticeable cell differentiation occurs, around 72 hours after SJ-10’s launch. The timing was largely in line with embryonic development on Earth, according to CAS.
But we still have no idea what happens in partial gravity. And they didn’t bring them to term.
We once thought moon dust would swallow anything landing there. I look forward to the death of this gravity bogyman.
Raising mice from embryos to adult in microgravity would be at least an interesting experiment.
There is now a centrifuge on ISS that I’d think would be big enough for mice. I have looked for the obvious experiment of raising mice in variable G but haven’t found it yet. Surely *someone* must have thought of this by now!
If not, there’s a Ph.D experiment waiting for someone; all the equipment is ON ISS already.
Jeff,
I’m not sure if the centrifuge on ISS is big enough for rodent research. The originally planned CAM centrifuge would’ve been, but I was under the impression (I think I saw a full-scale mockup of it once) that the centrifuge that is on ISS is pretty small. Do you have any specs on it?
~Jon
Jeff,
Doing a little quick digging mysefl, the two I could find were ~40cm in diameter for the Techshot MVP (http://www.techshot.com/documents/MVP.pdf), and ~30-40cm in diameter for the NanoRacks/Astrium ones (http://nanoracks.com/products/centrifuge/). I think they’re both too small for realistic rodent research, though maybe they could be used at least for rodent embryonic research? Not sure.
~Jon
Free flying, ISS co-orbiting small satellite would fit the bill.
Think I asked the nanoracks lady, Patricia, about this on twitter a while back and she was kind enough to respond and said the centrifuge was too small. Also, maybe something about how it wasn’t suited to do an experiment like this for other reasons.
You guys are on twitter, she would probably talk to you if she would respond to some random nobody.
VfR folks were using mice in high-g experiments nearly a century ago. It really is remarkable how little interest governments have had in this area.
There is a variable gee plant growth satellite to be launched soon, called eu:CROPIS.
I seem to remember a Space Show episode that talked about how a similar experiment with mice and that the egg wouldn’t implant on the uterus wall. Maybe it was a Russian experiment. Anyone know more about this? I am probably getting it wrong.
Saw a different article about the Chinese experiment that said their test didn’t go as far as implantation.