Rodents help NASA take the next step to Mars
(PHYSorg.com Space & Earth)

NASA`s future deep space exploration - including to Mars - is an unprecedented venture in spaceflight, requiring us to tackle challenges we`ve never faced before. For instance, we know the human body changes significantly while in space, and we`ll need to find ways to address those effects. NASA is conducting research to learn more about the long-term impact of extended human spaceflight. One experiment that just launched, Rodent Research-9, is contributing to this goal by sending rodents to the International Space Station, to study how a lack of gravity in space affects blood vessels, eyes and joints.