position: EnglishChannel  > News> Fruit Flies' First Space Odyssey Aboard Shenzhou-19

Fruit Flies' First Space Odyssey Aboard Shenzhou-19

Source: Science and Technology Daily | 2024-11-19 11:33:52 | Author: ZONG?Shihan

By?Staff?Reporters

On October 30, China successfully launched the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station for a six-month mission.

The trio will conduct a series of experiments in fields such as life science, fluid physics, combustion science and materials science. Notably, this is the first time that fruit flies have been taken on a Chinese space mission as experimental subjects. What made scientists choose fruit flies? What experiment will they undergo?

Fruit flies are important model organisms as despite being tiny creatures with a body length of only 3 to 4 millimeters, many of their genes are similar to human genes. Therefore, studying fruit flies can provide insights into human mechanisms and lay the foundation for investigating human adaptability in space.

For instance, by studying the changes in the muscles and exoskeleton of the fruit fly in a microgravity environment, scientists can gain better understanding of the challenges faced by astronauts during spaceflights. Additionally, studying the heart of the fruit fly in space can help reveal the potential effects of long-term exposure to microgravity on cardiovascular function.

Moreover, fruit flies have a reproductive cycle of approximately 10 days, enabling them to produce a large number of offspring in a short period. This characteristic will enable researchers to study gene changes in the species across multiple generations in space, making genetic experiments more convenient.

Earth has a magnetic field, while many other planets have none or extremely weak ones. The astronauts will also establish a sub-magnetic environment in the space station to explore the behavioral patterns, growth, and development of organisms in a weaker magnetic field environment. This will provide valuable data for future lunar and Martian landing missions.

In the future, with more advanced experiment equipment and technologies, the Chinese space station will conduct more complex experiments using mice, advancing space biology research.

Editor:ZONG?Shihan

Top News

  • From weeding and vegetable growing to the overall management of agricultural systems, AI has been widely adopted across all aspects of agriculture.

Innovation Fuels Private Sector Growth

As an important part of the national economy, the private sector is the main driver of startups and employment, and a key player in technological innovation. To realize high-quality development, private enterprises need to strengthen their awareness of sci-tech innovation, and seek innovation-driven development instead of the traditional labor or resource-driven path.

AI Diagnosis Model Facilitates Industry Upgrade

?Although launched less than a year ago, China's first AI large model for the diagnosis, operation and maintenance of industrial equipment has already been widely adopted in the coal, chemical and power industries.

抱歉,您使用的瀏覽器版本過低或開啟了瀏覽器兼容模式,這會影響您正常瀏覽本網(wǎng)頁

您可以進行以下操作:

1.將瀏覽器切換回極速模式

2.點擊下面圖標(biāo)升級或更換您的瀏覽器

3.暫不升級,繼續(xù)瀏覽

繼續(xù)瀏覽