The Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program

This website gives information on the Mars Gravity Bio-satellite program. This is just the cover page of sorts. If one follows the Faq link and the mission link you get more information. I could not find a date on this web site so the mission has either already occurred or is about to. Either way, it is interesting. For the purposes of describing the mission, I am going to assume that it hasn't happened yet. The mission was designed by students and involves the study of how lack of gravity affects muscle mass, bone density, and overall health with mice being the study animal. A satellite containing 15 mice living in individual cells will be launched into a low Earth orbit at a spin speed that should make the gravity similar to that on Mars. The idea is to see how the low gravity affects the mice. The mission lasts for 5 weeks and the mice will be monitored by video feed. I guess they put a lot of thought into how to keep the mice comfortable and in a clean environment for those five weeks. You should take a look at this site. It is really interesting.