Lost in Space - Geckos, Fruit Flies and Mushrooms

[changeling67]

Is it just me, or is this a VERY random set of passengers on a Russian FOTON-M4 satellite? According to Russian officials, the satellite has currently "stopped responding to ground control" (Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk - Accessed 26/07/14) and could come hurtling back down to terrafirma. They confirm that the six tonne satellite "could stay in space for as long as 12 months" but what is more worrying is that the spokesman currently observing the situation us from Russia's "Institute of Medico-Biological Problems" (Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk - Accessed 26/07/14). The experiment was to record the sex life of geckos and the biological studies of plant seeds etc.

Like WTF?? Seen from two different directions, this can be seen as worrying or comical: worrying to think that this is gonna come back down pretty fast and pretty soon on a totally random place, killing life on the ground and on board, or (my personal favourite) that somehow the geckos have overthrown their captors and are gunning the satellite towards another planet vis-a-vis Star Trek.

Full story - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28490744