2023-07-25 08:40:48
China plans to send zebrafish into space to study how astronauts experience bone loss in microgravity. Zhang Wei, China’s Assistant Commander in Chief of the Space Application System for Manned Space Engineering, announced that the small fish will be sent into orbit by the Tiangong Space Station, China’s space station, as part of research related to the interaction between microorganisms and fish in small closed ecosystems.
Many organisms have been sent to the space station before. Studies have shown that zebrafish have up to 87 percent genetic similarity with humans. In 1976, the Soviet Union sent zebrafish to its Salyut 6 space station as part of the Soyuz 21 mission. Experiments conducted by Soviet cosmonauts found that zebrafish have changed their behavior to survive in microgravity.
China has set up an aquarium at its Tiangong space station. It is an enclosed aquarium with one liter of water that can grow five zebrafish, algae and microorganisms. It is also equipped with an automatic feeding device to feed the animals. An intelligence system was developed to monitor growth and so on. But they did not release the timeline of the experiment or details of the device.
English Summary: China is sending zebrafish to the Tiangong space station
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