Living organisms that Russia will launch into space for a month in 2023 on the biological satellite Bion-M will receive a dose of radiation similar to the three-year flight of cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station, the head of the radiation safety department of manned space flights of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences told RIA Novosti problems of RAS Vyacheslav Shurshakov.
In September, it became known from a Roscosmos document posted on the government procurement website that the launch of the Bion-M biosatellite number 2 was postponed until 2023. As a source in the rocket and space industry clarified then to RIA Novosti, the device will be launched in April 2023 with a flight duration of about a month.
"The new Bion-M will fly in a near-earth orbit with an altitude of 800 kilometers. We have never launched living organisms so high, not counting the turtles that have flown around the moon," said Shurshakov.
He added that the "residents" of the Russian "Noah's Ark" for a month of flight will receive the same dose that cosmonauts receive on the ISS for three years. "This will be a unique experiment. Since there the orbit is higher than that of the ISS, there will be more heavy charged particles, which have an incompletely studied negative effect on the health of living organisms," explained Shurshakov.
Earlier it was reported that the Bion-M satellite number 2 would be launched into a near-earth orbit with an altitude of 800 kilometers to study the effect of space environment conditions on biological organisms. In particular, 75 mice, flies, plants and microorganisms will fly on the satellite. Scientists from France, USA and Germany are planned to participate in the project.
In April 2013, the Bion-M satellite number 1 was launched into orbit, the flight of which lasted for a month. Some of the animals on board died due to equipment failure.
In 1973-1996, 11 Bion satellites were launched into space, on which 12 monkeys flew.