Space
An experiment on the International Space Station recommends early embryo advancement isn’t impacted by the low-gravity, high-radiation conditions
By Alice Klein
A microscopiclense image of mouse embryos after they had returned from the International Space Station
Teruhiko Wakayama/University of Yamanashi
Mouse embryos haveactually been cultured on the International Space Station (ISS) for the veryfirst time to checkout whether it may be safe for humanbeings to endedupbeing pregnant in area.
“There is a possibility of pregnancy throughout a future journey to Mars duetothefactthat it will take more than 6 months to travel there,” states Teruhiko Wakayama at the University of Yamanashi in Japan, who led the researchstudy. “We are carryingout researchstudy to guarantee we will be able to securely have kids if that time comes.”
Wakayama and his associates carriedout the veryfirst actions of the experiment in their laboratory on Earth, drawingout embryos that were at an early two-cell phase from pregnant mice and freezing them.
The frozen embryos were sentout to the ISS on a SpaceX rocket that introduced from Florida in August2021 They were saved inside unique gadgets that W