RIAU24.COM – National Aeronautics and Space Administration U.S.A. (NASA) in collaboration with SpaceX recently launched 128 bobtail squid with 5,000 microscopic animals to the International Space Station (ISS) for a series of experiments on the effects of spaceflight.
As reported by the BBC, the animals were inside the rocket Falcon 9 Space X which was launched to the ISS on Thursday (June 3, 2021) as part of a cargo supply mission to support NASA space research.
The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft carrying a total of 3311kg of cargo were successfully launched at 13:29 local time on Thursday from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
Furthermore, ABC News reports that the microscopic animal and baby squid (Euprymna Scolopes) are part of a NASA experiment dubbed ‘UMAMI’, or ‘Understanding Microgravity in Animal-Microbial Interactions’.
In particular, the experiment sought to examine the effects of spaceflight on the molecular and chemical interactions between beneficial microbes and their animal hosts.
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UMAMI lead researcher Jamie Foster commented, “Animals, including humans, rely on our microbes to maintain healthy digestive and immune systems… We don’t fully understand how spaceflight alters these beneficial interactions.”
This space research is expected to better understand the complex interactions between beneficial animals and microbes. In addition, it will support the development of protective measures for the health of astronauts on long-term space missions.
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