The present for space: mighty mice
Print Edition
SpaceX made an early holiday delivery to the International Space Station yesterday, dropping off super muscular “mighty mice,” pest-killing worms and a smart, empathetic robot.
Italy’s Luca Parmitano, the station commander, used a large robot arm to grab onto the Dragon spacecraft three days after its launch from Cape Canaveral. The two spacecraft soared 420 kilometers above the South Pacific at the time of capture.
“Whenever we welcome a new vehicle onboard, we take onboard also a little bit of the soul of everybody that contributed to the project, so welcome on board,” Parmitano told Mission Control.
The capsule holds 3 tons of supplies, including 40 mice for a muscle and bone experiment.
Eight of the mice are genetically engineered with twice the normal muscle mass of ordinary mice — and so are considered “mighty mice.”
There also are 120,000 roundworms, or nematodes of a beneficial variety that are part of an agricultural study aimed at controling pests.
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