Advanced SpaceLife Research Institute
Mission: NASA Rodent Research - 20
​​​
​​​
Rodent Research-20 (RR-20) is a formerly NASA-funded space life sciences experiment that flew on the International Space Station from November to December of 2023, studying the impacts of the spaceflight environment on mammalian female reproductive systems (and inherent genetic impacts in subsequent generations) using 40 female mice. Post-flight results analysis is currently underway via the experiment's research team at University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC).
ASRI is currently conducting urgent fundraising efforts to save the subject mice colony, following news that NASA will be financially unable to extend the experiment's research grant, and without funding the mice will unfortunately be scheduled for euthanasia. The findings from RR-20, especially those in space-based reproduction and genetics, represent a decade-long scientific lead in unlocking key data sets and understanding of how we as a species will physically enable the eventual birth of multiple subsequent generations on new planets such as Mars.
​​
Help us save the Space Mice! Even the smallest contribution makes an impact on the future of this science and securing the future of the human species (and our furry friends everywhere) beyond Earth - and directly saves the lives of the Space Mice! Donate to our fundraising campaign here:
​
​
​
​
​
To provide additional information of interest, the following description of Rodent Research - 20 has been extracted verbatim from NASA's official website (link here), all academic credit for this text is due to them:
​
​
Science Objectives
​
Throughout the course of three shuttle missions, alterations in ovarian function were detected in female mice that could potentially lead to fertility issues. This latest mission to the International Space Station will further probe whether space-flown female mice have temporary or permanent alterations to their reproductive capability and whether dysfunctional hormone signaling is linked with bone loss. Because women astronauts will travel on extended missions to the Moon and potentially Mars, this mission is critical to understanding the impact of spaceflight on women's health.
​
Status
​
The Rodent Research-20 (RR-20) Mission launched aboard SpaceX-29 to the International Space Station (ISS) November 2023.
​
Experiment Description
​
The experiment consists of three groups of adult female mice for spaceflight and three groups for ground controls that match the flight groups for different types of analyses and time points. All animals will be housed in the animal enclosure module, and ground controls will be maintained under the same conditions as on the International Space Station with respect to temperature, carbon dioxide, and humidity.
​
Two of the groups will involve the same analyses at different time points, ~12 days and ~60 days after initiation of space flight, while the third group will be mated upon return to Earth to determine the fertility of the space-flown mice. The offspring from the ground control and spaceflight females will also be monitored to determine their developmental health.
​
During the mission, ground control and spaceflight adult female mice will be assessed at different timepoints for ovarian function. This assessment is done by determining endocrine hormone levels in serum and evaluation (or analysis) of ovarian and uterine morphology. Ovarian, uterine and bone gene expression studies will also be performed to determine whether hormone signaling, and ovarian function are altered by spaceflight. [End of NASA Text]
​
Please Remember:
Any and all contributions, no matter how small, make an outsized impact --
if many of us come together, we can do something great for humankind.
​​
SAVE THE SPACE MICE!​​