SCOTTISH scientists have received a massive Nasa grant to work out whether humans can successfully reproduce in space and colonise other worlds.
The team have been given £800,000 by the US space agency to breed several generations of fruit flies in zero gravity and then examine any genetic changes in the insects.
The unique project is an essential first step towards discovering whether mankind can survive for generations in space and establish permanent homes elsewhere in the solar system.
The grant has been awarded to Dr Douglas Armstrong, a behavioural geneticist at Edinburgh University, who hopes to get his experiments into space aboard the shuttle by the end of 2007.
The harmful effects of zero gravity on muscles and bones are well known as a result of studying astronauts who spent just a few months orbiting the earth. But deeper questions remain about what will happen to new life created away from earth's gravity, and if key genetic "switches" will operate normally in such conditions.
Together with Nasa scientists, Armstrong is sending a swarm of fruit flies to live and breed on the International Space Station. The insects have a life cycle of about a month, so it will be possible to study several generations during the mission.
The flies, which are about an eighth of an inch long, share around 60% of common or similar genes with humans, making them ideal models for experiments on the cramped space station.
Armstrong will look for changes in the behaviour of the flies before they are genetically analysed to see how living and breeding in space has altered their DNA.
"For Nasa this research is important for looking at what is required in long-term space flight to get people to Mars and how astronauts are likely to respond to such a long period of space flight," Armstrong said.
"Genes are prone to change in increased and lowered gravity. While on earth it is possible to increase gravity by spinning the flies in a centrifuge, it is much harder to reduce it. The only place to do that is in space.
"From our experiments here we know there are a few hundred genes in fruit flies that change over a two-hour period in high gravity, and these genes can then change back again when gravity returns to normal.
"On the space station we will be able to simulate everything from zero gravity to twice normal gravity. We will be looking for how the populations respond to changes in gravity over a number of generations."
The project was due to be launched later this year on a space shuttle mission, but increasing technical problems with the shuttle following the 2003 Columbia disaster have forced Nasa to delay it.
But Nasa insists the study is still in line to be put into orbit and a new flight timetable will be announced in the new year.
The first generation of flies will be launched as eggs before hatching on the space station. During the 90-day mission, Armstrong and his colleague, Kate Beckingham from Rice University in Houston, expect the flies to produce around nine generations of young.
Scientists at the space agency have already constructed a special insect habitat where the flies will live and where they can be watched around the clock by 24 digital cameras using hi-tech computer tracking normally employed by the police to follow suspects.
The flies will then be frozen before being sent back to earth, where the researchers can analyse which genes have become more active or less active while in orbit.
Armstrong said: "We will be launching normal flies and also some mutants who do not sense gravity. Although the detection of gravity in humans is very different from flies, the signalling pathways and the genes involved are very similar. So one of the things we might see is the genes that cause 'space sickness' from the lack of gravity."
Previous studies on the space shuttle have already hinted at the kind of genetic changes that might take place while living in space. When scientists grew human kidney cells, they found that more than 1,000 genes behaved differently compared with when they grew on earth.
They also found the cells were more sensitive to vitamin D, which reduces the risk of prostate cancer in men.
Other studies have shown that disease-fighting cells in astronauts do not attack germs as ferociously as they do on earth, meaning it takes them longer to recover from sickness.
Scientists believe that if the genetic changes from space travel accumulate from generation to generation, then settlers on other planets may kickstart another round of human evolution.
Sharmila Bhattacharya, the scientist in charge of the fruit fly project at Nasa's Ames Research Centre, said they hoped the project would help explain these differences.
In 2004, President George W Bush announced ambitious plans to send astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars in a move that has signalled the re-emergence of manned space flight.
Four astronauts are due to fly to the moon by 2018 and later crews are expected to set up a semi-permanent base, with astronauts living there for up to six months at a time. Nasa is also hoping to have a manned mission to Mars by 2030 with a round trip to the Red Planet taking at least 30 months.
Once there, Mars will be the decisive testing ground that will determine whether humanity can expand to enjoy the unlimited prospects enjoyed by a space-faring species.
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The team have been given £800,000 by the US space agency to breed several generations of fruit flies in zero gravity and then examine any genetic changes in the insects.
The unique project is an essential first step towards discovering whether mankind can survive for generations in space and establish permanent homes elsewhere in the solar system.
The grant has been awarded to Dr Douglas Armstrong, a behavioural geneticist at Edinburgh University, who hopes to get his experiments into space aboard the shuttle by the end of 2007.
The harmful effects of zero gravity on muscles and bones are well known as a result of studying astronauts who spent just a few months orbiting the earth. But deeper questions remain about what will happen to new life created away from earth's gravity, and if key genetic "switches" will operate normally in such conditions.
Together with Nasa scientists, Armstrong is sending a swarm of fruit flies to live and breed on the International Space Station. The insects have a life cycle of about a month, so it will be possible to study several generations during the mission.
The flies, which are about an eighth of an inch long, share around 60% of common or similar genes with humans, making them ideal models for experiments on the cramped space station.
Armstrong will look for changes in the behaviour of the flies before they are genetically analysed to see how living and breeding in space has altered their DNA.
"For Nasa this research is important for looking at what is required in long-term space flight to get people to Mars and how astronauts are likely to respond to such a long period of space flight," Armstrong said.
"Genes are prone to change in increased and lowered gravity. While on earth it is possible to increase gravity by spinning the flies in a centrifuge, it is much harder to reduce it. The only place to do that is in space.
"From our experiments here we know there are a few hundred genes in fruit flies that change over a two-hour period in high gravity, and these genes can then change back again when gravity returns to normal.
"On the space station we will be able to simulate everything from zero gravity to twice normal gravity. We will be looking for how the populations respond to changes in gravity over a number of generations."
The project was due to be launched later this year on a space shuttle mission, but increasing technical problems with the shuttle following the 2003 Columbia disaster have forced Nasa to delay it.
But Nasa insists the study is still in line to be put into orbit and a new flight timetable will be announced in the new year.
The first generation of flies will be launched as eggs before hatching on the space station. During the 90-day mission, Armstrong and his colleague, Kate Beckingham from Rice University in Houston, expect the flies to produce around nine generations of young.
Scientists at the space agency have already constructed a special insect habitat where the flies will live and where they can be watched around the clock by 24 digital cameras using hi-tech computer tracking normally employed by the police to follow suspects.
The flies will then be frozen before being sent back to earth, where the researchers can analyse which genes have become more active or less active while in orbit.
Armstrong said: "We will be launching normal flies and also some mutants who do not sense gravity. Although the detection of gravity in humans is very different from flies, the signalling pathways and the genes involved are very similar. So one of the things we might see is the genes that cause 'space sickness' from the lack of gravity."
Previous studies on the space shuttle have already hinted at the kind of genetic changes that might take place while living in space. When scientists grew human kidney cells, they found that more than 1,000 genes behaved differently compared with when they grew on earth.
They also found the cells were more sensitive to vitamin D, which reduces the risk of prostate cancer in men.
Other studies have shown that disease-fighting cells in astronauts do not attack germs as ferociously as they do on earth, meaning it takes them longer to recover from sickness.
Scientists believe that if the genetic changes from space travel accumulate from generation to generation, then settlers on other planets may kickstart another round of human evolution.
Sharmila Bhattacharya, the scientist in charge of the fruit fly project at Nasa's Ames Research Centre, said they hoped the project would help explain these differences.
In 2004, President George W Bush announced ambitious plans to send astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars in a move that has signalled the re-emergence of manned space flight.
Four astronauts are due to fly to the moon by 2018 and later crews are expected to set up a semi-permanent base, with astronauts living there for up to six months at a time. Nasa is also hoping to have a manned mission to Mars by 2030 with a round trip to the Red Planet taking at least 30 months.
Once there, Mars will be the decisive testing ground that will determine whether humanity can expand to enjoy the unlimited prospects enjoyed by a space-faring species.
Source