Could a trained rat become an astronaut on a flight to Mars?

Observation Rats are capable of learning different kinds of tasks relatively easily, as can be seen by the basketball-playing rats on display in Science Center Heureka.

Observation As there are many dangers involved in long flights to outer space, such as a flight to Mars, one might consider using rats as astronauts instead of people. Could this be feasible in practice?

Exploration Let’s consider the matter at first from a purely practical point of view without taking a stand on the ethical questions it involves. Ponder and try to find out what qualities are necessary for a living being travelling to Mars on a rocket: How long does the journey take? What tasks can be executed by means of machinery or from the Earth? How would food be provided? How would trash disposal be taken care of?

Exploration How could the beings survive the entire journey? Could new generations of rats be born during the journey and learn the tasks that were taught to their parents? What kinds of tasks could the rats be trained to do on a space journey? A good way to find out is studying a video about things that the rats in Heureka have managed to learn:

Concept introduction Answers to many of the questions can be obtained by watching the show of rats playing basketball in Heureka. The trainers of the rats are the best people to be asked questions about the rats’ life, training and ability to learn. Other good sources for finding out about these matters are the following: Marshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_mission_to_ Mars

Generalization of the concept The journey to Mars would most likely be a one- way flight only: the rats would be flying just with a ”to” ticket instead of a ”to-and-fro” ticket. This is another question that you should ponder in the matter of sending rats ”where no rat has gone before.” Is it ethically right to send animals to a certain death in the name of science?

Hints for the teacher Rats can learn these "tricks" mainly by being taught by human beings. They cannot transfer the skills they have acquired to the next generation by themselves, or can they? Some animals can teach lot of skills to their puppies, calves and what ever you call them. The journey to Mars takes only about six months, so a rat can survive the journey and even an eventual journey back. But how about journey to another galaxy? Is it possible, that rats in a spaceship change so much genetic, that they have more intelligence after lot and lot of generations ?

Hints for the teacher Rats are extremely short-spanned and unpredictable. Tasks performed by rats can usually be carried out better and more reliably by machines and other forms of machinery that does not have to be fed or taken care of. The rats' excrement can be a serious problem. The rats could be used as "guinea pigs" to see how the journey affects them and whether they can survive the journey in the first place. This, of course, is ethically rather questionable.