Mikhail Kotov — what scientists want to know and how the current launch differs from the previous Bions
On August 20, the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Bion-M spacecraft No. 2 will launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Inside the latter, 75 mice and more than 1.5 thousand fruit flies will go into polar orbit. Their main task is to provide scientists with information on how weightlessness and cosmic radiation affect living organisms.
If you do not delve deeply into the topic of manned flights, it may seem that the scientific community should have already accumulated an overabundance of information in this area. For example, it is now clear what weightlessness is and how to adapt to it. But in fact, there are more questions than answers.
Lack of information
The history of Bions began in the late 1960s, just during the creation of the first long-term orbital stations. When designing the Salyut, a scientific justification was required. Depending on the altitude of the orbit, the duration of the flight, and many other side conditions, scientists will learn important information when sending animals and insects that helps people fly.
During the Soyuz-9 flight in 1970, lasting 17.8 days, it became clear that even such a period strongly affects the capabilities of the human body. Cosmonauts Andriyan Nikolaev and Vitaly Sevastyanov, who returned from orbit, experienced significant difficulties getting used to Earth's gravity and needed medical help. And the plans were much longer. What should I do?
One of the answers to this question was the launch of the Bion spacecraft in 1973. Its main purpose was to collect information about the reactions of mammals, reptiles, insects, fungi and bacteria to prolonged weightlessness. For the experiment, they took a spacecraft based on the Zenit reconnaissance satellite, which, in turn, was created from the Gagarin Vostok spacecraft. In general, the spherical shape, which does not require complex orientation during landing, and cheapness made Vostoki the base for many different spacecraft: Satellites from the 4th to the 10th series, several Zeniths, Resurs-F and Bions.
The first "Bion" worked in space for 21 days. There were several dozen male rats, six turtles, a mycelium, flour beetles and bacteria in orbit at a point with a perigee of 220 km and an apogee of 424 km. Prolonged weightlessness had an effect on the subjects, and after landing, they had low body temperature, difficulty breathing, muscle atrophy, decreased bone strength, and a decrease in the mass of some internal organs. However, after two to three weeks, almost all the indicators returned to normal. Also, the first "Bion" proved the ability of insects to reproduce in space conditions — a second generation of flour beetles was obtained, and it did not differ from the first.
Since then, eight more spacecraft have been launched in the USSR under the Bion program. In addition to small animals and insects, macaques flew in pairs to more accurately simulate the impact of space on humans. Experiments were conducted to protect living organisms from the effects of weightlessness and cosmic radiation, centrifuges were used to create artificial gravity, and the possibility of fertilization and development in zero gravity was tested.
All this is part of the extensive work of various scientific organizations, including the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMBP RAS), which summarizes the experience and knowledge in the field of space biology and medicine.
Russian "Bions"
The Russian cosmonautics continued launching scientific missions under the Bion program. In 1992 and 1996, Bion-10 and Bion-11 were launched, largely due to the inertia of the Soviet Union, but with the participation of scientists from nine countries and with financial support from the United States. Pair flights of primates continued.
In 2013, the updated Bion-M spacecraft was launched from Baikonur. It was created on the basis of the same Vostok, but with an upgraded life support system designed to accommodate a wide variety of animals and insects for 45 days. 45 mice, 8 gerbils, 15 geckos, snails, crustaceans, fish and various microorganisms went on the flight. The program included more than 80 experiments.
However, there was an incident. According to official information, due to problems with the supply of food, one of the rodents got out of the cage and chewed the cable in the technical space. This led to a malfunction of the life support system — the death of gerbils, some black mice and cichlid fish.
Now the 12th "Bion" starts. His main task will be radiation experiments. Previously, scientists were more interested in the effects of weightlessness, but now the focus is on the radiation dose received during flight in orbits higher than the International Space Station and the Chinese Tiangong. The spacecraft is launched to an altitude of about 800 km, which is almost twice as high as the ISS orbit and 10 times higher in radiation levels compared to the first Bion. During a month of flight, the inhabitants of the spacecraft will receive a dose of radiation equivalent to that which astronauts would receive during three years of continuous flight. In total, it is planned to conduct more than 30 experiments (by the way, one of them will be conducted by schoolchildren).
Bion-M No. 2 received an improved set of dosimetric equipment. It will measure radiation not only inside, but also outside the device. In addition, scientists will get an accurate picture of how much cosmic radiation and solar wind contribute to the radiation background. It is also expected that telemetry from animals will be continuously received, and the Telenauka module, consisting of 25 digital cameras for shooting in the visible and infrared ranges, will be responsible for this throughout the flight.
Studying the background radiation in the polar orbit will help provide more data if it is decided to create a ROS based on an existing project. It will become clearer how dangerous such an orbit is for astronauts. In this experiment, the main subjects were mice: they were placed in five separate study blocks. Experiments with fruit flies are responsible for how the accumulation of radiation affects reproductive ability: several new generations will grow up during their flight.
By the way, one of the tasks of scientists when sending "Bions" into space is to bring the subjects back as healthy as possible. For this purpose, the spacecraft has a specially designed life support, feeding, heating and waste disposal system. It is important that the test subjects endure their flight with minimal stress.
The Meteorite-2 experiment is also interesting, in which pieces of basalt rock with strains of various microorganisms were embedded in the heat shield of the descent vehicle. How they survive the flight and high temperatures during the passage of the lander through the dense layers of the atmosphere will serve to study the hypothesis of panspermia (the spread of life in space with the help of comets and meteorites).
First the Bions, then the humans
All these experiments are required, of course, for the safe and efficient operation of astronauts in orbit. For example, the fact that Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko managed to safely gain a record 1,111 days of flight is also largely the result of working with animals and creating favorable conditions for long-term work on the International Space Station based on experimental data.
It is worth noting that Bion is currently a unique project by world standards. It has always attracted the high interest of foreigners. Other countries are conducting experiments with living organisms as part of their work on the ISS and China's Tiangong, but they do not have separate space expeditions dedicated entirely to biological experiments.
However, Bions must first fly to the polar orbit, to the Moon, Venus, Mars, and so on. We need to get as much scientific information as possible about how such flights affect living organisms, what we can do to reduce this impact, and only then send people. Therefore, let there be more and different "Bions".
