To boldly go where no cockroach has gone before

From the Moscow Times:

Wednesday, October 31, 2007. Issue 3776. Page 1.

Cockroaches Venture to the Final Frontier
Just two weeks before celebrating the 50th anniversary of the launch of
Sputnik, the Earth's first man-made satellite, another space landmark passed
almost unnoticed -- the first trip into space by a cockroach.

The flight by 54 red cockroaches from Voronezh has led to the birth of the
first -- as well as the second, third, fourth and so on to the 33rd --
creatures conceived in space.

The lucky mother, Nadezhda, gave birth to her brood Sunday, Dmitry
Atyakshin, who is in charge of the experiment at the biological department
of the Voronezh Medical Academy, said by telephone Wednesday.

"Hope, we called her Hope, brought us ... 33 little red cockroaches," he
said, using the term tarakanchiki, the affectionate form of the Russian word
for cockroach. Nadezhda is the Russian word for hope.

Nadezhda is currently in isolation in a plastic container in one of the
classrooms at the academy. Another mother-to-be is expected to give birth
soon. She had not been given a name, Atyakshin said.

Fifty-four cockroaches were sent into space in a box measuring only 150
cubic centimeters in a Foton-M, an unmanned capsule design first used in
1985. Based on the R-7 rocket that took the first man, Yury Gagarin, into
space in 1961, the Soyuz rocket was launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur
Cosmodrome on Sept. 14, returning to Earth 12 days later.


The idea came as part of a winning entry from Voronezh students in a
competition to design experiments for the space flight held by the Institute
of Biomedical Problems, in Moscow. The experiments were to be part of
ongoing studies of the physical effects of space flight.

Five experiments, all designed by students, were carried out in connection
with the launch, said Sergei Ryazansky, a former cosmonaut who coordinated
the project for the institute.

On their return, the cockroaches were sluggish and slow -- and would have no
doubt fallen easy prey to a slipper, as drawn in a cartoon in RIA-Novosti.

Although the first flight of man's best friend, a dog named Laika in 1957,
has become the stuff of space legend, Nadezhda and her 53 pals are not
household names -- although their relatives may be household pests. The
results of the experiment may, however, bear important fruit in the future.

The study of the space cockroaches -- or tarakanavty, as they have been
dubbed, combining the Russian words for cockroach and cosmonaut -- is part
of broader scientific study into the effect of space on living organisms.
With the arrival of Nadezhda's offspring, the effects of conception and
reproduction in space can also be examined.

The idea behind the experiment was to see how cockroaches -- which can
survive in the harshest conditions, including a month without food and
water -- would adapt to life in space. The students did, however, leave food
for their charges, in the form of some dried fruit in the container for them
to gorge themselves on as they orbited the planet.

"What if man flies somewhere very far away?" Atyakshin asked. "Of course,
these are cockroaches and not people, but the general picture is still the
same. The information can be applied to flights by humans."

"The question is whether life can continue away from the Earth during
extended space flight," he said.

Former cosmonaut Ryazansky agreed, saying the experiment would help
scientists further understand the physical effects of weightlessness, an
understanding that will be vital if man ever decides to embark on space
journeys lasting for years.

"They were not planning to get a new generation [of cockroaches]," Ryazansky
said. "This is a nice result. ... They will check how well these newborn
cockroaches that were formed in stressful conditions -- and space flight is
a stressful condition -- adapt."

When the students received the initial go-ahead for their experiment, they
ran into a problem: finding the cockroaches.

Searches of cellars, warehouses and attics proved fruitless. "It became
clear that red cockroaches are rare in Voronezh," Atyakshin said.

After three months of looking, the cockroaches were eventually found in a
government building. Atyakshin refused to say which building, although he
did say that it was not a local tax office.

The students will continue to study the trip's effects on their subjects and
their offspring for at least another year.


StarDome - Astronomy - Astronautics - Planetarium
Mr Andrew R Green B.Sc(Hons) FRAS.
Fellow Royal Astronomical Society
Director & Resident Astronomer StarDome,
Director Anglo-Australian Astronomy Education Partnership





.