A new study says roundworms, which researchers sent to the space station on the space shuttle Discovery's STS-116 mission in December 2006, may be sent farther, even to Mars, to aid human exploration efforts.

According to researchers, who studied the development and reproduction of the microscopic roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans in the International Space Station, since the worms have survived low-Earth orbit, it may be time to send them to the Red Planet. They added that these space-hardened worms could help humans deal with the rigors and risks of the long trip to Mars.

Launching C. elegans further to Mars would allow scientists to see just how dangerous the high radiation levels found in deep space, particularly on the Red Planet's surface, are to animal life, researchers said.

"We have been able to show that worms can grow and reproduce in space for long enough to reach another planet, and that we can remotely monitor their health," study lead author Nathaniel Szewczyk, of the University of Nottingham, UK, said in a statement.

"As a result, C. elegans is a cost-effective option for discovering and studying the biological effects of deep space missions," Szewczyk added. "Ultimately, we are now in a position to be able to remotely grow and study an animal on another planet."

The researchers had wanted to see if the roundworms would make a good study subject in orbit so they launched 4,000 C. elegans to the space station on the space shuttle Discovery's STS-116 mission in December 2006.

They kept tabs on the worms for three months as they zipped around the Earth at 17,500 mph (28,163 kph), and noted that these grew and reproduced despite the microgravity environment.

The researchers concluded that studying C. elegans could shed light on some of the challenges humans will have to overcome to become a multiplanetary species, including muscular deterioration and radiation exposure associated with long-duration spaceflight.

The researchers reported their results in the journal Interface.