Samples from experiments in space, which returned to Earth on Wednesday with the crew of China's Shenzhou-19 space mission, have been transferred to scientists in Beijing for further research.At a ceremony held Wednesday night at the Chinese Academy of Science's (CAS) Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, the materials were handed over to different research teams.The three Shenzhou-19 astronauts returned to Earth on Wednesday after completing a six-month mission in space, bringing back 37.25 kilograms of samples from 25 experiments in fields including space life science, materials science, and new technologies.Twenty of the samples are from life science experiments, and include bone cells and osteoblasts, human bronchial epithelial cells, early embryos of humans and animals, protein samples and fruit flies.
This marks the largest variety of biological samples returned to Earth since the Chinese space station began operating in late 2022.The biologically sensitive samples were rushed to Beijing immediately after the spacecraft touched down at the Dongfeng landing site, in western Inner Mongolia in north China.Fruit flies, similar to white mice and zebrafish, are often used in such experiments because they have similar genes to those that can cause diseases in humans.
Research based on studying fruit flies has contributed to six Nobel Prizes.The fruit flies brought back by the Shenzhou-19 crew were descendants of those brought to the space station by the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft in November last year for experiments to see how they would reproduce and grow under conditions similar to those on the Moon or Mars, where there is almost no magnetic field and no gravity.Three generations of the flies have been successfully bred aboard the space station."The in-orbit video shows that in space, fruit flies don't adapt to an environment without gravity and may float around or crash.
Through meticulous analysis, we have also discovered that some of their instinctive behaviors, such as courtship and feeding, also underwent abnormal changes, requiring us to conduct more in-depth and detailed data mining," said Li Yan, a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics at the CAS."We humans may leave the Earth and head for space in the future, like the moon, Mars, and even interstellar space, where there is zero-gravity and an extremely low magnetic field environment.
It is unknown whether living beings can survive, reproduce, have normal brain functions and develop normal behavioral patterns in such an environment.
So through such pre-research, we can gain an early understanding and explore exactly what kind of mechanism-based changes have occurred within it," Li added.Twenty-two other samples brought back by the Shenzhou-19 mission will also soon be sent to Beijing, including high-strength steel and lunar soil reinforcement materials.