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MISS: Mice on International Space Station.   G. Falcetti1, P. Schiller2 and C. Tenconi1. 1 Alenia Spazio — Laben (I), and 2 European Space Agency, ESTEC (NL).

  The use of rodents for scientific research to bridge the gap between cellular biology and human physiology is a new challenge within the history of successful developments of biological facilities.  MISS is an ESA funded study aimed at developing a facility able to support experimentation in space with mice in the following research areas: Bone Physiology - Neuromuscular investigations - Neuroscience and Development - Metabolic studies - Cardiovascular investigations — Behaviour. The MISS facility is composed of: 1) the MISS Rack to perform scientific experiments on board the ISS and 2) the MISS Animals Transport Container to transport animals from ground to orbit and vice-versa. To guarantee animals well-being and optimal experimental results, the MISS Rack includes: Habitat - Habitat Thermal Control - Atmosphere Conditioning — Master Control Unit. The Habitat is a close volume able to house 30 mice with a mean weight of 30 grams/mouse for a period of up to 3 months. It includes the Micro-g environment, where 20 mice are kept at micro gravity conditions, and the One-g environment, where 10 mice are kept under simulated Earth gravity conditions on a centrifuge of 800 mm diameter. Mice can be housed individually or in groups inside cages each one equipped with its own food bar dispenser and water lixit. Waste filters, located below each cage floor area, collect waste products removed from cages by means of air flowing through them. LED's (visible and IR) are used to implement light/dark cycles. Visual and acoustic observation is performed by means of cameras and microphones. The Habitat Thermal Control provides air with a temperature programmable from 20°C to 28°C. The Atmosphere Conditioning is a closed loop system which extracts O2 from cabin air and injects it into the air loop while mice generated CO2 is filtered. The Master Control Unit permits to control experiment execution in autonomous and automatic way. The resulting MISS facility design provides an environment which takes into account guidelines and recommendations applied for mice husbandry in normal ground laboratories to avoid the influence of environmental and biologic factors that may affect experimental results. (Supported by ESA: 16330/02/NL/JS)