Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer

This is an experimental block that an international team of scientists used to test the effects of artificial gravity on rats. On August 3, 1977, the USSR launched the satellite, Kosmos 936, also know as Bion 4, into orbit from the Pletsesk Cosmondrome. On board the spacecraft were thirty laboratory rats. Of the rats, twenty remained weightless, while ten experienced the equivalent of normal gravitational forces through the rotation of this unit. The purpose of the experiment was to determine whether those rats who were weightless and those who were in units like this showed any differences in bone mass after 19 days in orbit. Scientists concluded that although there were differences in bone mass between the rats that experienced weightlessness and those who did not, but the greatest differences in bone density was between those rats that flew in orbit and the control group on Earth.

The Soviet Institute for Biomedical Problems donated this unit to the Museum in 1979.

 Display Status

This object is on display in Space Science at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.

Space Science
Object Details
Country of Origin USSR Type SPACECRAFT-Uncrewed-Instruments & Payloads Manufacturer USSR Ministry of Health Institute for Biomedical Problems, USSR
 Dimensions Overall: 1 ft. 6 in. tall x 2 ft. 2 1/2 in. wide x 2 ft. 2 1/2 in. deep (45.72 x 67.31 x 67.31cm)
 Materials aluminum case with wires. Rat preserved by taxidermy included inside.
 Inventory Number A19790836000 Credit Line Gift of USSR Ministry of Health Institute for Biomedical Problems Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Usage conditions apply
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use.