China to send monkeys to space to study mating, reproduction in zero gravity: report

This screen grab made from video released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV shows Chinese astronaut Liu Boming stepping outside China's new Tiangong space station in orbit. (PC-AFP)

Chinese space scientists are planning to conduct an experiment involving monkeys to see how they grow and/or reproduce in space, in zero gravity, according to a report. The experiment would be conducted on China’s new Tiangong space station, inside the Wentian lab module, reported South China Morning Post.

After studying smaller creatures, “some studies involving mice and macaques will be carried out to see how they grow or even reproduce in space”, said Zhang Lu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, last week.

“These experiments will help improve our understanding of an organism’s adaptation to microgravity and other space environments,” he was quoted as saying.

The Tiangong space station is one of the crown jewels in China's well-funded space programme - which has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and made the country only the third to put humans in orbit - as it looks to catch up with major spacefaring powers like the United States and Russia.

The final module of the space station successfully docked with the core structure last Tuesday, state media said.

China has invested heavily in its space programme as it looks to catch up with major spacefaring powers like the United States and Russia.