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Male mice that spent more than a month in space were able to successfully reproduce back on Earth, a study has found, the first evidence of how space travel affects reproduction in mammals.
There have been some signs that spending time in radiation damage seen in freeze-dried mouse sperm that spent nine months in outer space, and decreased sperm counts in rats that spent 13 days in orbit.
The research examined 12 male mice who spent 35 days aboard the International Space Station in specially designed cages.
Some of the mice experienced the weightlessness of microgravity, while others were in cages designed to offer artificial gravity.
Upon their return to Earth, the researchers used sperm from the mice to fertilise eggs from female mice who had not experienced space travel, and found the astronaut rodents produced healthy offspring.
The team, led by Masahito Ikawa, a professor at Osaka University, also examined the reproductive organs of the space-travelling mice, and checked their offspring for any signs that their parentage had negative effects.
"We conclude that short-term stays in outer space do not cause overt defects in the physiological function of male reproductive organs, sperm function, and offspring viability," says the study published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday September 27 2019, @06:07PM (8 children)
You gotta let 'em hump up there in space and have the kids up there too. Then bring them back for further study.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday September 27 2019, @06:10PM (1 child)
Such an experiment might be allowed for mice.
But not for humans.
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 27 2019, @06:14PM
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/space-childbirth-babies/579064/ [theatlantic.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 27 2019, @06:14PM (1 child)
Been done.
http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/v27n1/rats.shtml [indiana.edu]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday September 27 2019, @06:31PM
Damn near jinxed by "money issues". That article is old. Did they ever do the experiment as originally intended?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 27 2019, @06:47PM
Seems that not only haven't the humans (other than Roger Moore) attempted to conceive in space, they haven't even tried after they got back, yet - which I find remarkable considering the length of time the program has been running, I have to assume that, public or not, somebody within NASA is worried about "mutant space babies" derailing their funding and pressures astronauts to not have post-spaceflight children.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11188562/Space-may-make-astronauts-infertile-scientists-fear.html [telegraph.co.uk]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday September 27 2019, @08:28PM (1 child)
How about a full term gestation experiment in space?
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(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday September 27 2019, @08:42PM
They did that much already. The guy originally wanted to raise a couple of generations, but NASA budget and other screwups killed that according to the 15 year old article that was linked in the thread somewhere. Maybe by now somebody did complete the intended experiment in the space station.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 28 2019, @01:19AM
And once you've done that experiment in low Earth orbit, then the kicker--repeat outside the Van Allen belts.