Engineering:Bion (satellite)

Short description: Soviet and Russian spacecraft aimed at biological experiments in space

Bion

A Bion spacecraft, on display
Manufacturer	TsSKB Progress
Designer	OKB-1
Country of origin	Soviet Union Russia
Operator	OKB-1
Applications	Bioscience
Specifications
Design life	5-22 days
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Production
Status	Retired (Bion-M in service)
Launched	11
Maiden launch	Kosmos 605 31 October 1973
Last launch	Bion No.11 24 December 1996
Related spacecraft
Derived from	Vostok Voskhod Zenit
Derivatives	Bion-M
Configuration
An artist's concept of a Bion satellite in orbit

The Bion satellites (Russian: Бион), also named Biocosmos, is a series of Soviet (later Russian) biosatellites focused on space medicine.

Bion space program

Bion precursor flights and Bion flights

The Soviet biosatellite program began in 1966 with Kosmos 110, and resumed in 1973 with Kosmos 605. Cooperation in space ventures between the Soviet Union and the United States was initiated in 1971, with the signing of the United States and Soviet Union in Science and Applications Agreement (which included an agreement on space research cooperation). The Soviet Union first offered to fly U.S. experiments on a Kosmos biosatellite in 1974, only a few years after the termination (in 1969) of the U.S. biosatellite program. The offer was realized in 1975 when the first joint U.S./Soviet research were carried out on the Kosmos 782 mission.

The Bion spacecraft were based on the Zenit spacecraft and launches began in 1973 with primary emphasis on the problems of radiation effects on human beings. Launches in the program included Kosmos 110, 605, 690, 782, plus Nauka modules flown on Zenit-2M reconnaissance satellites. 90 kg (200 lb) of equipment could be contained in the external Nauka module.

The Soviet/Russian Bion program provided U.S. investigators a platform for launching Fundamental Space Biology and biomedical experiments into space. The Bion program, which began in 1966, included a series of missions that flew biological experiments using primates, rodents, insects, cells, and plants on a biosatellite in near Earth orbit. NASA became involved in the program in 1975 and participated in 9 of the 11 Bion missions. NASA ended its participation in the program with the Bion No.11 mission launched in December 1996. The collaboration resulted in the flight of more than 100 U.S. experiments, one-half of all U.S. life sciences flight experiments accomplished with non-human subjects.

The missions ranged from five days (Bion 6) (Kosmos 1514) to around 22 days (Bion 1 and Kosmos 110).

Bion-M

In 2005, the Bion program was resumed with three new satellites of the modified Bion-M type – the first flight was launched on 19 April 2013 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The first satellite of the new series Bion-M1 featured an aquarium by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and carried 45 mice, 18 Mongolian gerbils, 15 geckos, snails, fish and micro-organisms into orbit for 30 days before re-entry and recovery. All the gerbils died due to a hardware failure, but condition of the rest of the experiments, including all geckos, was satisfactory. Half the mice died as was predicted.

Bion-M2 is scheduled to launch in 2023 on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket to an altitude of 800 km. The orbiter will carry 75 mice and studies will focus on how they are affected at the molecular level by space radiation.

Launch history

Bion (satellite)

Bion program	Bion no.	Kosmos no.	Launch Date (UTC)	Rocket	Launch Site
Bion precursor flight	unnumbered	Kosmos 110	22 February 1966, 20:09:36 GMT	Voskhod	Baikonur, Site 31/6
Bion flights	Bion 1	Kosmos 605	31 October 1973, 18:24:59	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk, Site 43/3
	Bion 2	Kosmos 690	22 October 1974, 17:59:59	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 3	Kosmos 782	25 November 1975, 17:00:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 4	Kosmos 936	3 August 1977, 14:00:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 5	Kosmos 1129	25 September 1979, 15:30:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 6	Kosmos 1514	14 December 1983, 07:00:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 7	Kosmos 1667	10 July 1985, 03:15:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 8	Kosmos 1887	29 September 1987, 12:50:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 9	Kosmos 2044	15 September 1989, 06:30:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 10	Kosmos 2229	29 December 1992, 13:30:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
	Bion 11	unnumbered	24 December 1996, 13:50:00	Soyuz-U	Plesetsk
Bion-M flights	Bion-M No.1	unnumbered	19 April 2013, 10:00:00	Soyuz 2.1a	Baikonur, Site 31/6
	Bion-M No.2		2024	Soyuz 2.1b	Baikonur, Site 31/6
	Bion-M No.3		2027

See also

• BIOPAN
• Biosatellite program
• EXPOSE
• Foton-M2
• Interkosmos
• List of Kosmos satellites
• List of microorganisms tested in outer space
• O/OREOS
• OREOcube
• Tanpopo
• Zond 5

External links

• Zenit Satellites - Bion variant
• Astronautix, Bion
• TsSKB, Bion images (Russian)
• R. W. Ballard, and J. P. Connolly; U.S./U.S.S.R. joint research in space biology and medicine on Kosmos biosatellites, FASEB J. 4: 5-9 [1] (Overview of Bion 1 to 9)