Monday, June 14, 2021

Generation Ship Sperm Banks

 If we're transporting animals (and even humans) to another planet, we'll need to preserve genetic diversity.

One great way to do so is to take along quantities of sperm. However, the obvious concern is that sperm exposed to cosmic radiation will develop all kinds of mutations.

Seems that's not true! Researchers stored mouse sperm on the ISS for almost six years, brought it back to Earth, and used it to produce perfectly healthy, genetically normal and fertile mice. You can't even tell.

So...yeah. Space sperm is a thing.

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