Rodent Research Hardware System
The Rodent Research Hardware System provides a research platform aboard the International Space Station for long-duration rodent experiments in space. Such experiments examine how microgravity affects the rodents, providing information relevant to human spaceflight, discoveries in basic biology, and knowledge that can help treat human disease on Earth.
Rodent spaceflight experiments have contributed significantly to our understanding of the effects of microgravity on biological processes that are directly relevant to humans in space. Rodent studies provide information of the whole biological system, including the effects of microgravity on the structure and function of the sensorimotor, musculoskeletal, nervous, cardiovascular, reproductive and immune systems.
Historically, short-term rodent experiments have been transported into Earth’s orbit aboard various vehicles, including Russian biosatellites and NASA’s space shuttle. The International Space Station is the first essentially “permanent” orbiting science laboratory that offers the opportunity for longer-term experiments in space. In 2011, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley was authorized to develop the Rodent Research Hardware System to enable rodent studies aboard the space station. This hardware development project leverages the experience gained from 27 prior flight experiments with rodents using a space shuttle-based system.
Advanced capabilities of the new system include housing for longer duration studies than the previous system permitted. In the post-shuttle era, the hardware also must support safe transport of rodents on the commercial resupply service vehicle SpaceX Dragon.
The Rodent Research Hardware System has three major components: the Transporter that safely transports rodents from Earth to the space station; the Animal Access Unit that is used to transfer the rodents upon arrival at the space station from the Transporter into the Rodent Habitat unit; and the Rodent Habitat that provides long-term housing for rodents aboard the station. A successful validation study was conducted during the first flight of the system, Rodent Research-1.
More information: See the Rodent Research Hardware System NASA Facts Sheet on this page.
