Influence of a long duration exposure, 69 months, to the space flight factors in Artemia cysts, tobacco and rice seeds

Evaluating the long-term effect of space radiation on the reproductive normality of mammalian sperm preserved on the International Space Station

“…Therefore, to determine the effects of space radiation on animals and their offspring, we must use the ISS for long periods of time. Here, the longest biological preservation experiment using mouse spermatozoa was performed on the ISS, and specimens were exposed to real space radiation (32). As a result, we obtained many healthy "space pup" offspring from space-preserved spermatozoa with the same success rate as the ground controls, even after 5 years and 10 months of storage.…”

“…The remaining samples were preserved on the ISS for 2 years and 9 months, and for 5 years and 10 months, which is the longest duration that samples have been preserved there in biological research (Fig. 1A) (32). Using these samples, we tried to evaluate the effect of space radiation on spermatozoa and examined whether long-term exposure to space radiation causes DNA damage to sperm and whether any accumulated mutations affect the next generation.…”

Natural born survivors: mechanisms that allow some animals to be OK in outer space

“…Table 1 summarizes the chronology space experiments on anhydrobiotic invertebrates which have already been conducted and those which are waiting to be done in near future. [1973][1974][1975][1976][1977][1978][1979][1980][1981][1982][1983][1984][1985][1986][1987][1988][1989][1990] provided the first evidence that such complex organisms as invertebrates can successfully survive short-term exposure to space environment in containers both inside and outside of a spacecraft [52][53] . Two groups of the cysts (one of which was placed inside the spacecraft and another on the outer side to be exposed to outer space) successfully survived the spaceflights and showed no significant difference in the rate of hatching 19) .…”

“…So far space experiments with living organisms were limited to LEO there is no evidence that our present knowledge about resistance of cryptobiotic organisms to space environment can be extrapolated to real interplanetary flights. Finally, there is even more exciting opportunity to extend our knowledge about the possibility to transfer living organisms through the space environment in real interplanetary mission onboard upcoming EXPOSE-R2 and VOZVRAT missions 52 jointly operated by ESA and Russian Space Agency. At least two species of anhydrobiotic invertebrates: larvae of the sleeping chironomid and tardigrades are used as model organisms in this experiment, providing opportunity to get new exciting updates of our present knowledge about limits in adaptation of the toughest and most complex terrestrial survivors to space environment.…”

Selected Morphological Changes in Artemia franciscana after Ionizing Radiation Exposure

“…The above mentioned facts were used, for example, during observation and comparison of the cosmic radiation effects on the rest stages (Gaubin et al 1986) or during the observation of the 60 Co gamma radiation effects and fast neutron effects (29 MeV) in Artemia dormant stages and their subsequent mortality and the changes after hatching (Iwasaki and Maruyama 1971). The cosmic radiation effect in Artemia rest stages was also investigated in the Biostack project tested during the Apollo 16 mission when a reduction of hatching from 90 % to 10 % was observed (Gaubin et al 1990;Ruther et al 1974;Planel et al 1994). An increased mortality and various somatic deviations were also observed in nauplius larvae (Heinrich 1977).…”