title: Study of physiological effects of weightlessness and artificial gravity in the flight of the biosatellite Cosmos-936.
abstract: In the 18.5-day flight of the Soviet biosatellite Cosmos-936 (3-22, August 1977) com-parative investigations of the physiological effects of prolonged weightlessness (20 rats) and artificial gravity of 1 g (10 rats) were carried out. Throughout the flight artificial gravity was generated by means of animal rotation in two centrifuges with a radius of 320mm. Postflight examination of animals and treatment of the flight data were performed by Soviet scientists in collaboration with the specialists from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, France and the U.S.A. During the flight the total motor activity of the weightless rats was higher and their body temperature was lower than those of the centrifuged animals. Postflight examination of the weightless rats showed a greater percentage of errors during maze an increase in water intake and a decrease in diuresis; a fall of the resistance of peripheral red cells; an increase in the conditionally pathogenic microflora in the mouth; a decrease of oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production and energy expenditures; a drop in the static physical endurance; a decline in the capacity to keep balance on the rail; an increase in the latent period of the lifting reflex, etc. The centrifugal animals displayed lesser or no change of the above type. These findings together with the biochemical and morphological data give evidence that during and after flight adaptive processes in the centrifuged rats developed better.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Problems, Moscow, USSR.
authors.forename: N N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Gurovsky
authors.forename: O G
authors.initials: OG
authors.lastname: Gazenko
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Adamovich
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ilyin
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Genin
authors.forename: V I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Korolkov
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Shipov
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Kotovskaya
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Kondratyeva
authors.forename: L V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Serova
authors.lastname: Kondratyev YuI
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D001831:Body Temperature; D001835:Body Weight; D018470:Gravity, Altered; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D009142:Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; D009206:Myocardium / Q000201:enzymology; D009218:Myosins / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012399:Rotation; D013026:Space Flight; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology; D014882:Water-Electrolyte Balance; D014893:Weightlessness; D018544:Weightlessness Countermeasures
chemical_list: D009218:Myosins