The first time in decades NASA is performing tests on primates, though the agency famously relied on the close human relatives to make some of the first forays into space in the 1950s. The testing is drawing the disgust of animial rights advocates with a dozen protestors taking to the streets in Boston this week seeking to halt the space agency tests.
NASA recently awarded the McLean Hospital in Boston a $1.75 million research grant to investigate the effects that space radiation may have on astronauts during future space explorations. The 27 squirrel monkeys primates will be hit with radiation doses equivalent to three years of space travel at a New York facility and then will be shipped to McLean Hospital to live under the watch of Harvard Medical School researchers.
The initial phase of the study is proposed to take place at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, located at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY, where up to 18 non-human primates (squirrel monkeys) will receive a one-time exposure of low levels of space radiation similar to what an astronaut would encounter on a Mars mission. The second phase of the study will be conducted at McLean Hospital, where the primates will be monitored for changes in behavior. All primates involved in this study will spend the remainder of their natural lives in a vivarium with full veterinary oversight.
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