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Information about Mars Gravity Biosatellite

The Mars Gravity Biosatellite project is a joint venture of MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop a free-flying spacecraft for un-crewed research flights. The spacecraft is also home to the YourNameIntoSpace initiative, designed to give individuals and corporations the opportunity to fly images of choice into orbit.[1]

Program History and Overview

The Mars Gravity Biosatellite program began in 2001 as a Mars Society initiative called Translife, designed to study the effects of Mars-level gravity on mammals. Since then, the program has grown tremendously in both scope and vision. Students at MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology are designing a small research satellite that will carry 15 mice in low Earth orbit for five weeks. As it orbits, the satellite will spin to generate artificial gravity of the same strength as the gravity that astronauts will experience on the surface of Mars. Launch date is still tentative, pending additional program funding, but development continues year-round at the two universities.

The vehicle is planned to perform a reentry at the end of the mission and to be retrieved with its cargo of mice.

Science

Gravity on Mars is only about 38% as strong as it is on Earth, and the long-term effects of such reduced gravity are unknown. Astronauts who are weightless for long periods of time lose significant amounts of bone and muscle mass. No one knows if the gravity on Mars is strong enough to avoid or minimize these health problems. This flight will provide the first data on how mammalian health is affected by long-term exposure to lower levels of gravity. The research will focus on bone loss, changes in bone structure, muscle atrophy, and changes in the inner ear.

Participants

To date, the program has engaged over 450 undergraduate, graduate, and high school students in spacecraft design, life support system development, systems engineering, and program management. Participants are welcomed from around the globe as visiting collaborators, remote contributors, donors, and advisors.

Financing

In 2006, the students of Mars Gravity developed a novel microfinancing platform, called YourNameIntoSpace to help finance the development of their spacecraft.

References

1. ^ [1]

External links

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private, coeducational research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing 32 academic departments,[3]
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Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly known as Georgia Tech, is a public, coeducational research university, part of the University System of Georgia, and located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, with in Savannah, Georgia, Metz, France, Shanghai, China, and Singapore.
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21st century - 22nd century
1970s  1980s  1990s  - 2000s -  2010s  2020s  2030s
1998 1999 2000 - 2001 - 2002 2003 2004

2001 by topic:
News by month
Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun
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The Mars Society is an international space advocacy non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging the exploration and settlement of Mars. Founded by Robert Zubrin and others in mid-1998 and attracting the support of notable science fiction writers and filmmakers (including Kim
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Gravitation is a natural phenomenon by which all objects with mass attract each other. In everyday life, gravitation is most familiar as the agency that endows objects with weight.
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private, coeducational research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing 32 academic departments,[3]
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Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly known as Georgia Tech, is a public, coeducational research university, part of the University System of Georgia, and located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, with in Savannah, Georgia, Metz, France, Shanghai, China, and Singapore.
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satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon.
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Artificial gravity is a simulation of gravity in outer space or free-fall. Artificial gravity is desirable for long-term space travel for ease of mobility and to avoid the adverse health effects of weightlessness.
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astronaut or cosmonaut (Russian: космона́вт IPA: [kəsmʌˈnaft]
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Mars  

Mars as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope
Orbital characteristics
Epoch J2000<ref name="nssdc" />
Aphelion distance: 249,228,730 km
1.66599116 AU
Perihelion distance: 206,644,545 km
1.
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Muscle atrophy refers to a decrease in the size of skeletal muscle, which occurs in a variety of settings. Atrophy may or may not be distinct from "sarcopenia", which is the loss of muscle seen in the aged.
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The inner ear is the bony labyrinth, a system of passages comprising two main functional parts:
  • the organ of hearing, or cochlea
  • and the vestibular apparatus, the organ of balance that consists of three semicircular canals and the vestibule.

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