Translife Mission Update: Mice Born at 25 rpm
Oct. 15, 2001

It is with great pleasure that the Mars Society announces that
Minnie, the female participant in the Mars Society's Translife
Mission Coriolis force experiment, has given birth of a litter of
approximately 6 healthy baby mice. The birth apparently took place
over the weekend, with the youngsters first observed on the morning
of October 15, 2001.

The Translife Mission is a Mars Society program to determine whether
mammals from Earth can live, give birth, and develop properly in
Martian gravity. This will be done by flying a capsule equipped with
a life support system and a crew of mice in low Earth orbit for
approximately 50 days. The capsule will spin, providing Mars-level
gravity to its in habitants. During the 50-day flight, the mice will
be allowed to reproduce, and the youngsters will grow to maturity in
Mars gravity, after which they will be recovered for study. The
results are fundamental to both issues of near-term human Mars
mission design, as well as the long-term question of whether higher
terrestrial life will ever be able to actually colonize Mars.

In order to keep the system small, however, a spin rate of 25 rpm
will be required. This has raised concerns that the Coriolis forces
associated with such a high spin rate would disorient the mice,
making a successful experiment impossible.

To resolve these concerns, the Mars Society built a simple experiment
at the Pioneer Astronautics lab in Lakewood Colorado. The experiment
consists of a rotating 1 m diameter turntable spinning at 25 rpm.
This provides the mouse habitat is positioned near the edge with 0.38
g of radial acceleration. Since there is also ordinary Earth gravity
present as well, the gravity the mice experience is quite different
from that which they will experience on orbit. However, the Coriolis
force is the same.

The experiment went into operation in late August. It was found that
within a few minutes of turntable start up that the behavior of the
mice was perfectly normal. Over the past 7 weeks, the mice have lived
at 25 rpm, and have been observed to eat, drink, forage, play, and
construct nests. Now, apparently after an appropriate courtship, a
family has been born.

It would appear that Coriolis forces will not be an obstacle to the
successful operation of a compact Translife mission experiment.

Congratulations Minnie!
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"During the 50-day flight, the mice will be allowed to reproduce"

Hey I see a Nobel prize in the offing for anyone who can get mice NOT to reproduce. :)

-philw