Payloads

NASA's participation in the Bion-M1 mission will continue the 30-year history of collaborative research between NASA and the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP), Moscow. Managed by the Flight Systems Implementation Branch, the Bion-M1 mission will launch an unmanned automated spacecraft carrying a biological payload into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The planned launch date is September, 2012 at Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The rodents on the Bion-M1 spacecraft will be exposed to spaceflight conditions for approximately one month, approximately 50% longer than any previous flight with rodents.

Unmanned Russian research spaceflights provide an opportunity to conduct biological and biomedical research on rodent models to determine the fundamental mechanisms of how life adapts to microgravity and then readapts to Earth-normal gravity. U.S. and Russian Principal Investigators (PIs) will have the opportunity to collaborate and participate in a Biospecimen Sharing Program (BSP).

This will be the first long duration (one month) spaceflight of rodents. Knowledge gained in the use of animals reveals the fundamental mechanisms of adaptation to spaceflight. Such knowledge provides insight for potential long duration human spaceflight risk mitigation strategies and potential new approaches for Earth bound biomedical problems.

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