Christmas presents, mice and robots arrived on the Space Station

Christmas gifts, along with supplies for astronauts, mice and the Cimon robot, the artificial intelligence system that will observe the astronauts' expressions, starting with Luca Parmitano: it is the cargo arrived on board the International Space Station (ISS), delivered from the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which arrived on Sunday 8 December. A capture it, with the space station's robotic arm, was AstroLuca.

"Every time we welcome a new vehicle, we also take a piece of all those who have contributed to the project on board, so welcome aboard," the astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) wrote on Twitter.

Among the experiments just arrived there are 40 mice destined for an experiment on muscles and bones, of which eight are genetically modified with a double muscle mass compared to normal. There are also 120,000 tiny worms (nematodes) that are part of a study aimed at controlling pests in agriculture.

Another 2.7 tons of supplies arrived on December 9th with the Russian Progress. In addition to oxygen and propellant, a new treadmill has arrived for the astronauts. The vehicle automatically hooked itself to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the orbital station. Launched on December 6th by the Russian base in Baikonur in Kazakhstan, the cargo brought 1.35 tons of supplies, 650 kilograms of propellant to refuel the propulsion system on the Russian segment of the station, together with 420 kilograms of water and 50 kilograms of oxygen. The vehicle will remain attached to the Space Station until July 2020 when it leaves the orbital laboratory laden with garbage to burn in the earth's atmosphere.