individuals and corporations the opportunity to fly images of their choice into orbit. By the program's end in 2009, the project had engaged over 600 undergraduate, graduate, and high school students in aerospace engineering, space life sciences, and program management. Over 20 conference presentations and papers were published, earning multiple student awards. On 24 June 2009, a status report was released declaring the end of this program, due to lack of funding and shifting priorities at NASA. Science Gravity on Mars is only about 38% as strong as it is on Earth, and the long-term effects of such reduced gravity are unknown. Astronauts who are weightless for long periods of time lose significant amounts of bone and muscle mass. It is unclear if the gravity on Mars is strong enough to avoid or minimize these health problems. The Mars Gravity Biosatellite was meant to provide data on how mammalian health is affected by long-term exposure to lower levels of gravity, focusing on bone loss, changes in bone structure, muscle atrophy, and changes in the inner ear. The results from the five-week mission experiment would have been compared against a variety of Earth-based controls, including vivarium, hindlimb suspension, partial weight suspension, flight habitat effects, and short-radius centrifuge testing. See also Simulated gravity References External links Mars Gravity, archived home page Mars group launches high-flying fundraiser Space ship logos go ka-ching!, Sasha Brown, News Office, November 3, 2006, MIT News Release Colonization of Mars Proposed satellites Non-profit organizations based in the United States Scientific organizations based in the United States Mars Life in space Biosatellites