The animals that traveled to space
What was the first animal that traveled to space? What happened to all the dogs, monkeys and mice sent to space?
The first spacecraft that transported biological material was Sputnik 2. It was the second spacecraft placed in orbit around the Earth on November 3, 1957, which, in a sealed cabin, housed the dog Laika, whose original name was "Kudryavka". "
The street dog had enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame in 1957, having been discovered on a street in Moscow, trained - hurriedly - and launched into space. The mission ended Laika's death five hours after launch.
Despite this disastrous mission, the launch of Sputnik 2 - more than 60 years ago - was a turning point in the history of space exploration for the very first time that a living creature had been aboard a spaceship. .
While Laika may have been a pioneering animal in Earth's orbit, it was more than a decade ago that animals were being used in the name of space exploration.
Russian and American scientists used animals for a long time to test the limits of their capacity, in order to send living organisms into space and return them unharmed.
The first sent to outer space were ... fruit flies, which flew at a height of about 100 kilometers inside a Nazi rocket, the V2 in 1947. This V2 rocket housed a group of vinegar flies or fruit flies that we doubt very much that they had proper names like the case of Laika. It was launched into space and also some seeds. The objective was to know the effects of this type of travel, height, acceleration, and especially radiation ... in these insects because they respond to many of the substances that include drugs for humans and, thanks to their speed of reproduction is easy to see how different generations respond to the experiments carried out.
In the following years, NASA sent several monkeys, called Alberto I, II, III, IV, into space, along with the monitoring instruments. They all died.
It was not until the flight of a monkey named Yorick (accompanied by 11 mice) in September 1951 that scientists were able to claim that they had sent a primate into space and returned it alive to Earth.
After the success of that flight, the experiments became more elaborate. Today we remember the history of all those animals that traveled into space.
The fly, the first animal to be sent into space
That's right, they were the great pioneers in the history of space travel. Inside a V2 rocket, from the German military technology of Nazism, shortly after the Second World War, were placed some corn seeds and a group of fruit flies or vinegar flies, which live for about 30 days and They put about 500 eggs that hatch into larvae in a matter of hours. Thus, on February 20, 1947, the United States launched from the base White Sands Missile Range this rocket taken spoils of war to the Germans. The objective was to know the effects of exposure to radiation at high altitude in flies. The rocket reached the 109 kilometers of height and after stopping the capsule, they verified that the flies had returned alive to the Earth.
Why were the fruit flies chosen?
Genetically, this species has much more in common with Homo sapiens than we could imagine. About 75% of all disease-causing genes present in humans have analogues in the genetic code of the fruit fly. Therefore, studying these flies can teach us a lot about our own genetic makeup, which is why it is one of the important reasons why these insects are so popular among biological researchers.
Monkeys in space
Alberto II became the first monkey in space on June 4, 1949. He reached an altitude of 134 km, but died on impact when the parachute failed. Another monkey, precisely Alberto I, died when the V-2 rocket failed before reaching the maximum altitude. Two other monkeys, Alberto III and Alberto IV, also died when their rockets had errors.
How many monkeys have gone into space?
A total of 32 monkeys have flown in space, including: rhesus macaques, cynomolgus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and pig tailed macaques. They have also sent to the chimpanzee space.
Space mice
A mouse launched on August 15, 1950 reached a total altitude of 137 kilometers, but died when the rocket disintegrated due to a failure of the parachute. Several mice were later released during the 1950s.
The first dogs thrown into space
On August 15, 1951, dogs named Dezik and Tsygan were launched into space, becoming the first canine suborbital astronauts. Several more embarked on suborbital flights at a time when people knew very little about space, and with those who wanted to test the technology of the capsule, the oxygen supply, whether the radiation would damage it or whether they would survive the mission. Thus, Dezik and Tsygan were the first dogs to perform a suborbital flight in 1951. Both dogs survived without injury after traveling at a maximum altitude of 110 km. Tsygan was adopted by the physicist Anatoli Blagonravov.
More dogs in space
The Government of the Soviet Union used, as we see, several dogs on suborbital flights and within the orbit of the Earth to determine if a human cosmonaut could be able to withstand a space mission. The dogs in question were propelled at an altitude of 100 km aboard R-1 missiles from 1951 to 1956. They all wore pressure suits and diving suits with acrylic glass. The majority of these almost 60 dogs survived the tests. Those who did not were: Dezik and Lisa on July 29, 1951 because the parachute could not be deployed and both dogs died; Lisa2 and Bulba, which were launched in February 1955 and whose recovery phase failed and both died; or because of the decompression of the cabin, reason for which Rzyhaya and Dzhoyna died in 1957 and Palma and Pushok in 1958.
Laika in 1957
But the first complete Earth orbit of a living being was made by Laika, a small mongrel dog picked up from the street and sent to Soviet Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957, in a metal container. According to those responsible, they chose a dog instead of a dog because the females do not have to lift a leg to urinate, so they need less space than the males for the design of the capsule. They also chose a stray dog for being 'more resourceful and demanding'.
What was the astronaut bitch's costume like?
Laika's laced suit included a contoured helmet on the head with a snout and an oxygen supply in case of a pressure leak. The rocket that lifted Laika into space was called Sputnik 2, but in reality it was a modified R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile.
Squirrel monkey in 1958
A South American squirrel monkey named 'Gordo' became a space traveler on December 13, 1958. Also called Old Reliable, this squirrel monkey trained by the US Navy, departed aboard an intercontinental ballistic missile of the Jupiter type, AM-13, from the Army of the United States, which died from a mechanical failure of the parachute recovery system at the tip of the rocket.
The first ones who returned alive from outer space
On May 28, 1959, the rhesus monkey Able and the squirrel monkey Baker became the first to return successfully to Earth after space flight. The monkeys survived 32 times the attraction of Earth's gravity. On July 2, 1959, a Soviet launch took two dogs and the first rabbit into space. But, yes, the first animals that came to outer space and returned alive were a couple of dogs, Belka and Strelka, who took off on August 19, 1960 and returned a day later. They traveled in the Soviet Sputnik 5 with a gray rabbit, 42 mice, two rats and several fruit flies.
Ham, the first hominid to fly into outer space
One of the most famous animals that returned successfully from space was Ham the Chimpanzee, who flew with a Mercury capsule on January 31, 1961. He survived a suborbital flight and paved the way for Alan Shepard to become the first human in space three months later. Ham was the first hominid to fly into outer space. Enos later became the first chimpanzee to orbit a Mercury spacecraft on November 29, 1961. Enos also survived the flight.
Ham died in 1983 at the age of 25 and was buried in the Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico. His bones were removed before his burial, and are kept in the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington DC for its scientific value.
Cats in space
The French launched the first cat into space on October 18, 1963 after a selection of 14 copies. Félicette had electrodes implanted in her skin to transmit her condition at all times, to monitor her neurological constants. The cat reached an altitude of 160 km and landed safely after a flight of just 15 minutes. It is the only feline that has been in space. Upon arrival, she was cheered as an authentic heroine. His experience offered valuable information about the reactions of the animal body in the adverse conditions of space. Unfortunately, after living for two or three months on Earth, she was sacrificed to study her brain. He lost his life for science.
More dogs
The Russian space dogs Veterok and Ugolyok orbited a record time: 22 days before landing safely on March 16, 1966. Their space flight record is the longest for astronauts dogs. It was never overcome. For its part, China released mice, rats and dogs between 1964 and 1966.
Turtles in space
On September 14, 1968, animal astronauts reached a new milestone in space flight when the Soviet Union sent two turtles around the moon. They were joined by worms of flour, wine flies and slightly less exciting bacteria. They survived their trip, splashing in the Indian Ocean on September 21, a few days later. They had lost 10% of their body weight but, for the rest, seemed to be in good health. We know that they survived for at least 21 days when scientists continued to study them, but what happened next is not entirely clear.
And when did the man reach the Moon?
Once humans landed on the moon in 1969, the role of animals began to fade. Animals in space no longer held media headlines, but spacecraft still carried biological cargoes, including rabbits, turtles, insects, spiders, fish, jellyfish, amoebae and algae. In 1973, two European garden spiders named Arabella and Anita spun webs aboard NASA's Skylab space station for 59 days.
In a closer time
It is rumored that China possibly sent a monkey, a dog and a rabbit into space in 2001, although very little is known about this flight. Iran apparently launched a monkey into space in 2013, claiming it had survived the trip, but there were comments that the animal shown in the before-and-after images was actually two different monkeys.
Pushing the limits
As global space agencies work furiously to bring humans to Mars in the 2030s, questions of survival in deep space are also being explored with the help of animals.
In September 2007, for example, scientists claimed that tiny eight-legged invertebrate creatures known as "water bears," or tardigrades, could survive in vacuum, extreme temperatures and ultraviolet radiation from open space.
And in 2014 Japanese scientists announced the survival of mouse sperm that had been lyophilized and sent for nine months to the International Space Station, which orbits about 400 kilometers above the planet.
Back on Earth, sperm was used to fertilize embryos in vitro to produce healthy offspring that grew into normal adult mice.
Why are not dogs, cats or monkeys anymore sent?
When these animals were sent into space, it was feared that mammal species in general could not survive without gravity, because we did not know what it would be like to live in space without gravity. Today it is more feasible to send large numbers of small animals to achieve biomedical research objectives. Generally rodents, fruit flies, fish and other animals of this type are used. How is your experience? When they arrive on board and begin to float, everyone is surprised, but they quickly learn to use their habitat, to move, drink, sleep and eat in a fairly normal way.
Are other times
It is unlikely that animals will be used again for space exploration in the same way they did in the first days of the space race. For some, or perhaps most, those trips were quite distressing. Now it's up to humans to be the guinea pigs while we look at the Moon, Mars and beyond.
