Back in the glory days of the space race, scientists used to experiment with animals in orbit before sending humans into space. Now, all these years later, the Russians are planning to return to their roots by sending a monkey, or perhaps an ape, to Mars. In an interesting twist, the Russians plan on having a robot aboard the monkey-ship as a guardian of sorts, which will look after the animal, feed it and clean it. The monkey (or ape) will also have to be trained to interact with the robot.

Just wait until PETA hears about this….

Mr Mikvabia said: “Earlier this programme was aimed at sending cosmonauts, people (to Mars).

“But given the length of the flight to Mars, and given the cosmic rays for which we don’t have adequate protection over such a long trip, discussions have focused recently on sending an ape instead of a person.”

Estimates for the length of the journey to Mars vary depending on the type of mission envisioned, but the European Space Agency says its proposal for a round-trip mission would take 520 days, or about a year and a half.

If Russia pursues the idea of sending monkeys to Mars, Mikvabia’s institute could become the site of an enclosed “biosphere” where apes would be kept for long periods to simulate space flights.

The Institute said a robot would accompany the first primate to Mars to feed and look after the ape.

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