Species On Russian 'Noah's Arc' Biosatellite To Be Exposed To Radiation - Sciences Academy

Animals and plants that are going to be launched into orbit on board the Russian biosatellite Bion-M2 in 2023 will be exposed to a radiation dose equivalent to what ISS astronauts get in a three-year flight time, Sputnik has learned from Viacheslav Shurshakov, head of the radiation safety department of manned space flights at the Biomedical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th April, 2020) Animals and plants that are going to be launched into orbit on board the Russian biosatellite Bion-M2 in 2023 will be exposed to a radiation dose equivalent to what ISS astronauts get in a three-year flight time, Sputnik has learned from Viacheslav Shurshakov, head of the radiation safety department of manned space flights at the Biomedical Institute of the Russian academy of Sciences.

The launch of this Noah's Arc-like satellite was initially scheduled for early 2022, but then postponed until 2023. A source in the Russian Federal space agency Roscosmos told Sputnik that Bion-M2 would be launched in April of 2023 for a month-long flight.

"The new Bion-M will be orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 800 kilometers [500 miles]. We have never launched any living organisms so high in space, save for the turtles that orbited the Moon," Shurshakov said.

The spaceship will carry 75 mice, flies, plants and microorganisms with an ultimate goal to determine the influence of space environment on biological organisms.

According to Shurshakov, these animals will be exposed to the same dose of radiation that astronauts at the International Space Station received in three years of flight.

"This is going to be a unique experiment. Because the orbit is going to be higher than that of the ISS, there will be more heavy charged particles, whose negative effect on health of living organisms is not entirely researched," the scientist said.

Collaborating with Russia on the project will be France, Germany and the United States.

The first Bion-M biosatellite was launched into orbit in April of 2013. The flight lasted for one month, and part of the animals on board died as a result of technical failures.

The moon-orbiting turtles that Shurshakov mentioned were launched on board 11 Bion satellites in the 1973-1996 period.