Fruit flies on the Chinese space station

The latest crew of the Chinese space station Tiangong is not made up solely of human astronauts, the orbital laboratory recently received unusual visitors, fruit flies, yes these small insects long known in scientific research, now play a crucial role in experiments on life in space.

In its last resupply mission, the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft transported 15 adult flies and 40 pupae to the Tiangong. The purpose of taking these creatures off Earth is that it could reveal fundamental secrets about survival in microgravity environments and the impact of living away from the protection of the Earth's magnetic field which plays an essential role in preserving life.

This field protects us against dangerous cosmic rays and blocks the radiation emitted by the sun. Without it, the surface of our planet would be curiously uninhabitable, according to scientists, and in the remote past almost half a billion years ago, a partial collapse of this shield seems to have triggered a boom in biodiversity demonstrating how cosmic changes can influence the adaptation of life, however, far from Earth as in deep space, human explorers will be exposed to radiation without this natural or artificial protection.

This vulnerability is one of the great challenges of future interplanetary missions, to face this obstacle scientists need to study how living organisms react to the absence of magnetic fields and this is where the fruit musks come in, although the Tiangong is still in low orbit where Earth's magnetic field offers partial protection, researchers have created a controlled environment inside the station that simulates more extreme conditions.

While maintaining an area with normal levels of this magnetism for comparison, these little insects may seem like a curious choice, but they are a mainstay of scientific research; for more than a century fruit flies have been used in biomedical studies and genetic for very practical reasons, short life cycle, ease of reproduction, genetic similarity with humans and ease of transport.

The Tiangong is not the first orbital laboratory to carry out research with these insects, the international space station, for example, has already hosted a mini laboratory dedicated to them, however, the experiment at the Tiangong is unique, since it simulates submagnetic and microgravitational conditions. In an unprecedented way, among the focuses of study are biological rhythms, movement patterns and genetic changes that can occur and a hostile environment such as space.

Although flies are the first target of this research (plans for future experiments include sending mice to the Tiangong), scientists hope to explore more complex systems such as nerves, bones, muscles and immunity, expanding our understanding of the impacts of space on the biology of organisms closest to humans.

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