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- NASA shared a mouse video learning to move in microgravity on a space station.
- The images are part of a study to understand the effects of space on astronauts performing long missions.
- The mice continued to eat, groom and cuddle, but adapted these behaviors to the weightless environment.
- Some started circling around their cage, a behavior described by NASA as a "race tracker".
- Visit INSIDER.com for more stories.
NASA on Tuesday released a video showing mice mastering how to move in the weightless environment of the International Space Station.
Scientists have been observing mice in space since 2014 to better understand how astronauts might be affected when they spend longer periods of time in what is called the microgravity environment. NASA said in its report.
As the agency prepares to send astronauts on long journeys to the moon or Mars, it is testing the living conditions of rodents because they have body systems similar to those of humans.
In the latest study, the researchers filmed the mice in microgravity for 37 days and compared the recording to the behavior of the mouse on Earth. In terms of the life span of a mouse, this is considered a long-term mission.
The pictures show that rodents continue to eat, groom, cuddle and explore as they would on Earth.
The only difference was that they adapted these behaviors to an environment of weightlessness. Instead of standing on their hind legs to explore their environment, for example, they clung to the walls of the cage with their hind legs or tail.
According to NASA, some of the youngest mice in the study have developed a new behavior called "race tracking", in which they perform rounds around the cage.
Scientists continue to research why they started this new activity. One of the possible reasons might be that they were trying to boost their balance system which they barely needed in microgravity.
The mice on this mission were the first to be housed in a habitat called a rodent hardware system, which allowed them to grab items and run.
Allowing rodents to move around like an astronaut is important because this allows NASA to examine the effects of microgravity on bone loss, for example, NASA said.
April Ronca, NASA researcher and lead author of the study, said that simply observing their behavior could be helpful.
"The behavior is a remarkable representation of the biology of the whole organism," she said in the report. "He informs us about health in general and how the brain works."
Space mice have completed the study in good health, weighing roughly the same weight as their Earth-based counterparts, NASA said.
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