CHARTER ONE
1982. TsUP. USSR. Korolev, Moscow region. Pionerskaya str., d. 4
The mAIn control room is where the flight director and specialists responsible for the operation of the station's various onboard systems work. The operators plan and monitor the flight's stages, ensure communication with the crew, and the doctors monitor the team's condition. Each person has their own workspace with consoles, computers, and communication equipment. In the flight director's office, the flight director, his deputies, and representatives of the Papanin Institute of Inland Water Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences sit at a table.
FLIGHT DIRECTOR
By order of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Biorisk experiment with tardigrades has been approved, which will be conducted in space aboard the Soyuz T-10 spacecraft.
DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE
The top leadership of our country has set a task. The purpose of the experiment with tardigrades is to study the effects of weightlessness and cosmic radiation on these organisms.
PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY
Several tardigrades will be sent into orbit to be studied, as agreed upon
REPLACEMENT SUPERVISOR
The launch date of the Soyuz T-10 spacecraft is scheduled for February 8, 1984.
DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE
By the way, foreign colleagues are also conducting research on this individual. Scientists shot tardigrades with a shotgun to test their survival rate. All for the sake of answering the most important scientific question. An astrochemist and an astrophysicist from the University of Kent (UK) conducted an experiment with tardigrades to determine whether they are able to survive cosmic collisions. To do this, they loaded a gun with tardigrades and fired at a sandy target.
PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY
There is also information that an Israeli company has sent tardigrades as part of an "ecosystem model" on a spacecraft to the moon.
REPLACEMENT SUPERVISOR
You can hear it. The lander slammed into the surface, and the contents scattered across the satellite.
The base unit contAIns the cosmonauts Leonid Kizim (commander), Vladimir Solovyov (flight engineer), and Oleg Atkov (research cosmonaut). There is a video link with the control center.
SHIFTED HEAD
Pamir 1, how was the cargo ship loaded on the ground?
LEONID KIZIM
In a normal mode. And in full readiness for the disconnection. WAIting for your order, Zarya.
PROFESSOR BIOLOGIST
And what are the results of the experiment?
VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV
The resistance of tardigrades to radiation and other damaging environmental factors is largely due to the presence of the Dsup gene.
PROFESSOR BIOLOGIST
This is what we expected. It forms stable complexes with DNA, causing its aggregation in the nucleus, and protects the genetic material from radiation damage.
OLEG ATKOV
The genome of the tunicate also contAIns a large number of protective genes, such as 16 enzymes from the superoxide dismutase family, which neutralize reactive oxygen species, and the MRE11 gene, which repAIrs double-stranded DNA breaks.
PROFESSOR BIOLOGIST
Was there anything unusual during the experiment?
LEONID KIZIM
The tardigrades that were inside the room did not show any intelligent activity. They behaved in the same way as they did on Earth. However, after returning from space, we noticed that the tardigrades that spent time in outer space grew more rapidly than those that were inside the station.
OLEG ATKOV
And what is the most amazing and then continued to grow, however, slower. But you yourself will soon see everything.
VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV
And the most amazing, when we brought them into the base block from outer space and placed separately in the bar capsule, it was found their forms of development of the mind as in insects.
