14 DAY TRIAL // The American space agency all but announced the cancellation of a highly-controversial radiation experiments it planned on conducting on squirrel monkeys recently, when it said that the research effort had been removed from the organization's lab time consideration assessments.
Other than actually saying that the research had been canceled, there isn't much more NASA could have done to express its lack of support for the study. The investigation would have affected some 27 squirrel monkeys.
Originally, it was supposed to be conducted at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Long Island-based Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory here has the necessary equipment to conduct such works.
The reason who the agency wanted to exposed the monkeys to these conditions was to boost its knowledge about the effects of long-term space radiation exposure on astronauts.
As the world is getting ready to send the first-ever manned mission to Mars, space agencies around the world still don't know what the long space journey to our neighboring planet would do to astronauts.
There are both physical and psychological aspects to this issue, experts say. The psychological ones are currently being assessed in the Mars500 experiment, underway in Russia.
Six “astronauts” are closed in a facility simulating a Mars-bound ship and landing area for 520 days, which is about how long a trip to the Red Planet would last, Space reports.
After the initial announcement of the experiments caused quite a stir, as well as large-scale protests from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and its supporters, NASA explained that the study was necessary.
The federal organization showed that primates are absolutely essential for understanding the effects of space radiation on humans, and added that such tests are conducted often.
But PETA officials had argued that the differences between us and squirrel monkeys would more likely make the results unusable. Additionally, radiation the monkeys with a single dose of radiation cannot compensate for nearly three years of exposure during an actual flight.
“Well, folks, you did it. After scores of protests and more than 100,000 letters, phone calls, and e-mails from PETA supporters […] the space agency has quietly called off plans to conduct cruel radiation experiments on monkeys,” PETA said in the statement.
This was released the same day NASA announced that it will be taking a break from this project. On December 8, the agency released a short document, showing that it will soon enter a review stage.
With the new space plans set forth by US President Barack Obama, NASA is set on an entirely different path than the one it has been walking on for years. It now needs time to start over new.