A centre for the collection, processing and archiving of data was set up at the Institute for Space Research of NASU and NSAU in Kyiv.

There are five species in the Lamnidae family: the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), the longfin mako (Isurus paucus), the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis) and the porbeagle (Lamna nasus).

The porbeagle (Lamna nasus) is a coastal and oceanic, amphitemperate species, with centres of distribution in the north Atlantic and in a circumglobal band of temperate water of the south Atlantic, south Indian, south Pacific and Southern Oceans.

The Variant project is the first international space experiment to be carried out with broad international cooperation, involving France, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, under the leadership of Ukrainian scientists, in particular those of the Lvov Centre of the Institute for Space Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU) and the National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU).