Payloads

The Flight Systems Implementation Branch developed hardware enhancements including video recording and water delivery capabilities for the newt and gecko space biology experiments for the Russian Foton-M3 mission launched onboard the Soyuz-U rocket September 14, 2007 from Kazakhstan.

Scientists from NASA Ames and Montana State University collaborated with Russian investigators to conduct pre- and post-flight studies on the newt, gecko, snail and bacteria experiments to understand biological responses in spaceflight.

Foton-M3 spent 12 days in low-Earth orbit, during which time the onboard experiments were exposed to microgravity before reentering the atmosphere and landing on the Russian-Kazkh border on September 26, 2007.

NASA Ames scientists developed eight, one-inch deep aluminum boxes called "attics" that housed a battery-powered video camera for inflight recording, a solid-state video recorder, infrared LEDs, and a pump that provided water for newts and geckos.

NASA has a long history of cooperative research with the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow using unpiloted Russian spacecraft starting with the Bion 3 (Cosmos 782) mission in 1975.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=23095

Foton-M3 rocket rolled out
http://www.roscosmos.ru/NewsDoSele.asp?NEWSID=2429

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2007/07_63AR.html

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