俄羅斯：太空蟑螂孫輩誕生 跟普通蟑螂沒差別

Russian space scientists announced on Thursday a new breakthrough in a long pedigree of firsts: the birth of 30 grandchildren of a "space cockroach" who spent 12 days in orbit.

Interfax news agency reported the birth of 30 healthy descendants of the pioneering cockroach Nadezhda (Hope), who conceived last September in an orbiting laboratory named Foton-M.

Unlike Nadezhda's children, who showed a faster maturation rate than normal, the grandchildren correspond completely to the average household cockroach, said Dmitry Atyakshin, a scientist at Voronezh Medical Academy, 470 kilometres (290 miles) south of Moscow.

"These are descendants of those cockroaches who were conceived in space and were born after returning to Earth ... In all particulars they accord with standards on Earth," he told the news agency.

The grandmother was the latest in a long line of animals to have been tested for their survival skills in space. Cockroaches are not known to inhabit the International Space Station, a long-term home to humans in space.

俄羅斯太空科學家於本週四宣佈了一項動物試驗的最新突破：曾經在太空遨遊12天的“太空蟑螂” 有了30個孫輩。

據俄羅斯國際文傳電訊社報道，這30只健康的孫輩蟑螂是太空蟑螂先驅“希望”的後代。“希望”是去年9月在Foton-M繞道實驗室中受孕的。

俄羅斯沃羅涅什醫學院的科學家迪米瑞·阿季亞克欣表示，與“希望”的子女不同，她的孫輩與普通常見的蟑螂完全一樣，而她的子女要比普通蟑螂發育快得多。沃羅涅什醫學院位於莫斯科以南470公里處。

他對記者說：“這些孫輩是在太空中受孕的蟑螂返回地球之後產下的。其細部特徵與地球上的蟑螂基本一致。”

這隻蟑螂奶奶是諸多參與太空生存技能測試動物中的新進成員。科學家之前不知道蟑螂是否能在國際空間站生活。國際空間站長期以來都只是人類的太空家園，沒聽說過有蟑螂在那裏寄居。