The biological payload for Bion-M1 included rodents, amphibians, reptiles, crustaceans, mollusks, fish, insects, bacteria, plant and animal cell cultures.

The spacecraft was the result of collaboration hosting biomedical payloads provided by scientific institutions from the United States, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Poland and other countries.

The Bion-M automated spacecraft was a unique specialized space complex that aimed to determine the fundamental mechanisms of how life adapts to microgravity and then readapts to Earth-normal gravity.

[12] The Bion-M No.1 mission was managed by Roscosmos, but scientists from the United States, Germany, Canada, Poland, the Netherlands and other countries also participated in the experiments.

Deputy Director of Russia's Institute of Medical and Biological Studies Vladimir Sychev indicated that some of the results may help explain why some astronauts suffer impaired vision during spaceflight: "We used to think that in zero-gravity, fluid travelled upward and that the quality of blood improved, but it turns out that it is the other way around.