|
Post by auntym on Mar 6, 2014 14:38:33 GMT -6
www.davidreneke.com/animal-astronauts/Animal Astronauts by Dave Reneke Mar 6th, 2014 Looking back on all of humanity’s successes in space, it can be easy to forget that many of our accomplishments have been built on the sacrifices of other creatures. Here are ten animals who played an indispensable role in paving the inter-planetary way to space. 10. Fruit fliesIf we’re going to talk animals in space, it makes sense to start with the first — and that title goes to none other than the unassuming fruit fly. A number of them were launched aboard an American V2 rocket on February 20, 1947 to explore the effects of radiation on space-faring organisms. The astro-flies’ rocket was launched to an altitude of 68 miles (the United States and international definitions of “the edge of space” are 50 miles and 62 miles, respectively) before returning to Earth, at which point the flies were recovered alive. 9. DogsIt would be remiss of us, of course, to leave dogs off this list — and seeing as we just got done talking about the first animal in space, it bears mentioning that the first animal in Earth’s orbit was, in fact, a dog. Laika, pictured here, was a stray-turned-Soviet space dog launched aboard Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. Unfortunately, Laika was also the first animal to perish in space, dying due to overheating just a few hours after entering orbit — a fact that has haunted some Soviet scientists ever since: “Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us,” said former Soviet scientist Oleg Gazenko (one of the scientists responsible for sending Laika into space) at a Moscow News conference in 1998. “We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it… We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.” 8. CatsBut the Soviets weren’t the only ones to send strays skyward; in 1963, France had every intention of sending a stray named Felix into space. Felix, however, had other plans, and flew the coop prior to the October 18th launch date. Felix was replaced by a female stray dubbed Félicette (featured here looking very stepford-kitty, probably on account of the electrodes that were implanted in her brain to monitor her in-flight neural impulses). Unlike Laika, Félicette never entered Earth orbit. Her mission was to simply travel into space and descend to Earth by parachute, and lasted less than 15 minutes. That said, Félicette was also recovered alive. 7. SpidersThe first arachnids in space were European garden spiders named Arabella and Anita. The pair were launched on July 28, 1973 aboard the Saturn IB rocket, in the US’s second manned mission to Skylab. Once in orbit, scientists monitored Anita and Arabella to see what effect being in Earth’s orbit would have on their web-spinning abilities. Pictured here is the first spider web to be spun in space, produced by Arabella. All things considered, she did a pretty bang-up job (although the thickness of the silk was found to vary significantly throughout the web — a feature not encountered in Earth-spun spider structures). 6. BullfrogsIn 1970, NASA launched its Orbiting Frog Otolith spacecraft, with the primary goal of gathering information on the effects of weightlessness on the brain’s perception of gravity and acceleration in space (your otolith is part of the system your inner ear uses to keep you balanced). Data gathered from electrodes implanted in the bullfrogs’ thoracic cavities and vestibular nerves (your vestibular system plays a critical role in your sense of balance) revealed that the initial periods of weightlessness led to abnormal vestibular responses, but that these changes eventually reverted to normal, suggesting that the bullfrogs ultimately acclimated to their zero-g environment.
CONTINUE READING: www.davidreneke.com/animal-astronauts/
|
|
|
Post by auntym on Nov 3, 2014 14:09:20 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by auntym on Dec 12, 2015 13:51:34 GMT -6
www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/belka-and-strelka-soviet-space-celebrities-180956299/?no-ist Belka and Strelka: Space Celebrities
55 years ago today, two “cosmonauts” went into orbit and safely returned.Portraits of Belka and Strelka—adorably dressed in their red and green spacesuits—appeared on postcards (shown here), chocolates, matchboxes, stamps, and toys soon after their orbital flight in 1960. (By L. Aristov, from the postcard collection titled "Friends of Man." By Rebecca Maksel / airspacemag.com August 19, 2015 Fifty-five years ago today, the canine cosmonauts Belka and Strelka became worldwide celebrities after spending one day in orbit. After their triumphant landing, they appeared on radio and television, and met politicians and celebrities, both Soviet and international. The dogs’ survival was important to the space race: On November 3, 1957, the world had followed Laika’s flight on board Sputnik 2. She wasn’t the first dog to go into space—the Soviets had performed at least 22 other tests with dogs and high-altitude rockets—but Laika was the first to go into orbit. There was international concern over Laika’s fate, and the actual cause of her death (she suffocated within hours of launch) wasn’t made public until 2002. While Laika’s death may have briefly tarnished the Soviet space program, the USSR once again took the lead in the space race with the success of Belka and Strelka’s flight. Their story—along with many others—are found in Olesya Turkina’s lavishly illustrated book Soviet Space Dogs (2014, FUEL). Click on the slideshow images, below, to learn more about the dynamic duo. CONTINUE READING: www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/belka-and-strelka-soviet-space-celebrities-180956299/?no-ist
|
|
|
Post by auntym on Feb 23, 2016 13:23:52 GMT -6
www.space.com/17764-laika-first-animals-in-space.html?cmpid=514648_20160222_58537026&adbid=701881671490998272&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856 Laika the Dog & the First Animals in SpaceBy Elizabeth Dohrer, SPACE.com Contributor September 25, 2012 The Soviet Union stunned the world on Nov. 3, 1957, with the launch of Sputnik 2. On board the small satellite was a little dog, Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth. However, Laika was not the first animal in space. The United States and the U.S.S.R. had been putting animals atop rockets since 1947.Laika, a mixed-breed dog, was the first living being in orbit. She was launched on the Soviet Union's Sputnik 2 mission in November 1957. Credit: NASA In the early days of rocket science, no one knew what the effects of weightlessness would be. Animals — mainly dogs, monkeys and chimps — were used to test the safety and feasibility of launching a living being into space and bringing it back unharmed. Since then, animals have continued to play an important role in understanding the impact of microgravity on many biological functions. Astronauts have studied all kinds of animals — wasps, beetles, tortoises, flies, worms, fish, spiders, rabbits, bees, ants, frogs, mice, crickets, rats, newts, snails, urchins, moths, brine shrimp, jellyfish, guinea pigs, butterflies, scorpions and cockroaches. Sputnik and MuttnikLaika was a young, mostly-Siberian husky. She was rescued from the streets of Moscow. Soviet scientists assumed that a stray dog would have already learned to endure harsh conditions of hunger and cold temperatures. Laika and two other dogs were trained for space travel by being kept in small cages and learning to eat a nutritious gel that would be their food in space. The dog's name was originally Kudryavka, or Little Curly, but she became known internationally as Laika, a Russian word for several breeds of dog similar to a husky. American reporters dubbed her Muttnik as a pun on Sputnik. Unfortunately, Laika's trip into space was one-way only. A re-entry strategy could not be worked out in time for the launch. It is unknown exactly how long Laika lived in orbit — perhaps a few hours or a few days — until the power to her life-support system gave out. Sputnik 2 burned up in the upper atmosphere in April 1958. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/17764-laika-first-animals-in-space.html?cmpid=514648_20160222_58537026&adbid=701881671490998272&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856
|
|
|
Post by auntym on Oct 1, 2016 11:18:19 GMT -6
www.universetoday.com/44430/space-dogs/Laika statue outside a research facility in Moscow (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky) How Many Dogs Have Been to Space?Article Updated: 1 Oct , 2016 by Abby Cessna / www.universetoday.com/author/acessna/Becoming an astronaut is a rare honor. The rigorous selection process, the hard training, and then… the privilege of going into space! It is something few human beings will ever be privileged enough to experience. But what about other species of animal that have gone into space? Are we not being just the slightest bit anthropocentric in singling out humans for praise? What about all those brave simians and mice that were sent into space? What about the guinea pigs and rats? And what of “Man’s Best Friend”, the brave canines that helped pave the way for “manned” spaceflight? During the 1950s and 60s, the Soviets sent over 20 dogs into space, some of which never returned. Here’s what we know about these intrepid canines who helped make humanity a space-faring race! Background:During the 1950s and 60s, the Soviets and Americans found themselves locked in the Space Race. It was a time of intense competition as both superpowers attempted to outmaneuver the other and become the first to achieve spaceflight, conduct crewed missions to orbit, and eventually land crews on another celestial body (i.e. the Moon). Before crewed missions could be sent, however, both the Soviet space program and NASA conducted rigorous tests involving animal test subjects, as a way of gauging the stresses and physical tolls going into space would have. These tests were not without precedent, as animals had been used for aeronautical tests in previous centuries. For instance, in 1783, the Montgolfier brothers sent a sheep, a duck and a rooster when testing their hot air balloon to see what the effects would be. Between 1947-1960, the US launched several captured German V-2 rockets (which contained animal test subjects) to measure the effect traveling to extremely high altitudes would have on living organisms. Because of the shortage of rockets, they also employed high-altitude balloons. These tests were conducted using fruit flies, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, cats, dogs, frogs, goldfish and monkeys. The most famous test case was Albert II, a rhesus monkey that became the first monkey to go into space on June 14th, 1949. For the Soviets, it was felt that dogs would be the perfect test subjects, and for several reasons. For one, it was believed that dogs would be more comfortable with prolonged periods of inactivity. The Soviets also selected female dogs (due to their better temperament) and insisted on stray dogs (rather than house dogs) because they felt they would be able to tolerate the extreme stresses of space flight better. Training:For the sake of preparing the dogs that were used for the sake of test flights, the Soviets confined the subjects in small boxes of decreasing size for periods of between 15 and 20 days at a time. This was designed to simulate spending time inside the small safety modules that would housed them for the duration of their flights. Other exercises designed to get the dogs prepared for space flight included having them stand still for long periods of time. They also sought to get the dogs accustomed to wearing space suits, and made them ride in centrifuges that simulated the high acceleration experienced during launch. CONTINUE READING: www.universetoday.com/44430/space-dogs/
|
|
|
Post by auntym on Feb 6, 2017 15:16:37 GMT -6
www.unknowncountry.com/news/meet-f%C3%A9licette-worlds-first-and-only-cat-sent-space Meet Félicette: The World's First (and only) Cat sent into SpaceMonday, February 6, 2017 We're all familiar with the concept of early spaceflight experiments that sent animals into space, including fruit flies, various rodents, all the way up through the quintessential space-monkey. These high-flying menageries were sent aloft to study the effects of travel into space on biological organisms, as no-one at the time knew what would happen to a human being if they were sent to that high an altitude. The Soviet Union quickly incorporated dogs into their space program, with nine pooches being sent into orbit before Yuri Gagarin's first flight caused the cessation of the canine conquest of the cosmos. And NASA's use of trained chimpanzees in the Mercury program demonstrated that a human could operate the controls of a spacecraft, despite the rigors of launch and the uncertainness of the effects of zero-gravity. But one cosmic critter launch that history seems to have forgotten is that France sent the first (and apparently only) cat into space, a domestic short-haired tuxedo cat from Paris, named Félicette. Selected from a crack-team of fourteen trained felines, the French Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherches de Médecine Aéronautique (CERMA) launched Félicette aboard her Veronique AGI sounding rocket No. 47 from the Colomb Bacar rocket base at Hammaguir in the Algerian Sahara desert, on 18 October 1963. During the trip, electrodes implanted in her brain allowed the researchers to gather neurological data. Her flight lasted roughly fifteen minutes, and attained an altitude of 100 miles (160 km) before descending back to Earth via parachute. Félicette was reportedly in excellent condition when she was removed from the capsule. Although the cats that were trained by CERMA weren't named by the researchers, Félicette gained her name through the press, and also gained the nickname "Astrocat" in Britain. Félicette remained with CERMA for the next three months, as they studied theeffects that her trip had on France's premier chat de l'espace. News Source: gizmodo.com purr-n-fur.org www.unknowncountry.com/news/meet-f%C3%A9licette-worlds-first-and-only-cat-sent-space
|
|
|
Post by auntym on Sept 1, 2017 13:29:17 GMT -6
gizmodo.com/how-cats-and-other-good-animals-helped-pave-the-way-f-1798701043?rev=1504285757814&utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow How Cats (and Other Good Animals) Helped Pave the Way For Human Spaceflightby Rae Paoletta / kinja.com/raepaoletta9-1-2017 All cats are amateur physicists. We know this because they insist on constantly knocking things over to make sure gravity still exists. But just because cats are interested in science doesn’t make them great candidates for space travel. Of course, that didn’t stop the Air Force from putting that to the test. Archival video footage from 1947 shows researchers at the Air Force’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, flying kitties and pigeons on a C-131 aircraft, nicknamed the “Vomit Comet,” that simulated weightlessness through a parabolic flight trajectory. The experiment was part of the Aerospace Medical Division Hq 657Oth Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories’ bioastronautics research, so the Air Force probably wanted to see how kitties would fare in space before humans went. The researchers wrote very detailed instructions on how humans could potentially move around in space, based on kitty maneuvers. Though Americans (regrettably) never sent a cat into actual space, France did, because, of course. On October 24th, 1963, the Centre national d’études sent a tuxedo cat named Fèlicette on a 15-minute-long jaunt in suborbital space. She survived, and was later studied by French scientists at the Education Center of Aviation and Medical Research (CERMA), to see whether or not her brain had been impacted by spaceflight. Other animals were also blasted toward the final frontier to test early rockets—and regrettably, some didn’t survive the trip. On November 3rd, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2, which carried a dog named Laika on board. Though Laika became the first living creature in orbital space, engineers couldn’t think of a re-entry plan for Sputnik 2 in time for launch so she never made it back to Earth. In 1948, NASA launched a rhesus monkey named Albert 39 mi (63 km) up on a V2 rocket, but unfortunately, he suffocated and died. Many other animals have been sent into space since these early days for research purposes. But it seems like no missions for cats in space have been pulled off since Fèlicette. The next time we’ll see likely kitties in space is when Elon Musk finally launches that Martian cat colony I’ve been begging him for. gizmodo.com/how-cats-and-other-good-animals-helped-pave-the-way-f-1798701043?rev=1504285757814&utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
|
|