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All five sex geckos freeze to death in space
http://www.geek.com/news/all-five-sex-geckos-freeze-to-death-in-space-1603316/At the end of July a group of five geckos hit the headlines because Russia had lost control of the spacecraft they were orbiting Earth in. While Russian scientists scrambled to restart the engine and reestablish contact, the geckos continued their mission of having sex in space, oblivious to their situation and potential fate....
The mission ended early on Monday after 44 days (it was meant to last 62 days) when the 6-tonne Foton-M4 satellite carrying the geckos returned to Earth. However, the geckos were dead on arrival, with the cause being put down to a broken heating system leading to the geckos freezing to death. This apparently happened up to a week before the mission ended as their bodies were found to be partly mummified.
It’s not all bad news for the mission, though. The mushrooms and plant seeds on board seem to be fine, and the Drosophila fruit fly passengers not only survived the trip, they managed to reproduce!
We don’t know what, if any data was collected about the geckos having sex while weightless (we now know fruit flies aren’t bothered by it), but as they gave their lives for the mission we have to hope it produced something useful. If nothing else, Russian scientists will be working to make their spacecraft engines and heating systems much more reliable.
The mission ended early on Monday after 44 days (it was meant to last 62 days) when the 6-tonne Foton-M4 satellite carrying the geckos returned to Earth. However, the geckos were dead on arrival, with the cause being put down to a broken heating system leading to the geckos freezing to death. This apparently happened up to a week before the mission ended as their bodies were found to be partly mummified.
It’s not all bad news for the mission, though. The mushrooms and plant seeds on board seem to be fine, and the Drosophila fruit fly passengers not only survived the trip, they managed to reproduce!
We don’t know what, if any data was collected about the geckos having sex while weightless (we now know fruit flies aren’t bothered by it), but as they gave their lives for the mission we have to hope it produced something useful. If nothing else, Russian scientists will be working to make their spacecraft engines and heating systems much more reliable.
