Recently NASA was granted funding to assess the long-term effects of radiation on monkeys leaving animal rights activists up in arms. In the study 18 to 28 squirrel monkeys would be subjected to radiation and periodically tested to gauge how exposure affects performance in a variety of learned tasks. Astronauts would be bombarded by stellar and galactic radiation on missions to Mars, yet the health effects of such a trip are not well known.

Quote from opposition: "Interplanetary human travel is, at best, a highly speculative aim for the foreseeable future," the organization's appeal states. "To put animals through radiation tests now in anticipation of such an enterprise is in no way justified."

Quote from NASA representative: "There's a long-standing commitment on the part of NASA to deep space travel, and with that commitment comes a need for knowing what kinds of adverse effects deep space travel might have, what are the risks to astronauts," Bergman told Discovery News. "That's not been well assessed."

Tags: chimps, chimpanzees, monkeys, NASA,

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