Animal Astronauts
Animals In Space
There is an adventure in learning about nature while on earth and a stirring adventure while aboard some spacecraft in space. Looking differently in a different region with a different state of mind gives you a “UNIQUE” experience. Every child has a dream of becoming an astronaut. The bulky spacesuit, travelling at a tremendous speed, the power of levitation, observing changes with every centimetre of ascent makes the human mind vibrate at a special frequency, energising it with inquisitive thoughts. The seed of a thought of “carrying animals in space” was planted by Montgolfier brothers back in 1783, when they for the first time took a duck, sheep, and rooster aboard their hot air balloon.
The success they garnered helped their upcoming generations to adopt similar fascinating ideas with modifications. From duck, sheep, and rooster to monkeys and apes, dogs, cats, tortoises, mice, rats, rabbits, fish, frogs, spiders, and insects — all of them were to be tagged with the name of animal astronauts in the coming years.
Let’s expend a few moments to know the animals that’d sacrificed their lives for human aspirations, becoming part of — “UNIVERSALISM”….
Animal Astronauts
Space exploration isn’t possible only due to the hard labor of humans but it was possible due to the sacrifices these friends of human had to go through.
Given below is the list of some of the animals that were sent into space, their year of the journey, along with their respective countries:
- 1947 — U.S launched a spacecraft containing fruit flies. These were recovered alive.
- 1948 — U.S launched a rhesus macaque, named Albert-1. Albert-1 didn’t make it and died due to suffocation.
- 1949 — U.S launched another rhesus macaque, Albert-2. It lived but later died due to parachute failure. It was the first primate, first monkey, and first mammal in space.
- 1950 — U.S launched a mouse, but the parachute system failed.
- 1951 — Soviet launched dogs — Tsygan and Dezik, into space, and were successfully recovered.
- 1952 — U.S launched mice, but they failed to reach.
- 1957 — Soviet launched the first animal into orbit — the famous dog named Laika, on Sputnik 2. The technology for safe return hadn’t yet developed. So, it was a one-way journey and Laika died.
- 1958 — U.S sent a squirrel monkey named Gordo into space. But the parachute failed.
- 1959 — U.S launched monkeys — Miss Able and Miss Baker. These became the first monkeys to survive spaceflight after 1959. These monkeys proved to be special as they withstood extreme conditions and returned back safely. Even Miss Baker passed the test of her reproductive system by mating on earth. The same year, the Soviet sent two dogs, and the first rabbit(Marfusha) into space. U.S sent two frogs and twelve mice — but failed due to fault during the initial launch.
- 1960 — Soviet safely launched on Sputnik 5, dogs — Belka and Strelka. Strelka’s pup — Pushinka was presented to Caroline Kennedy by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. In the same year, U.S sent three black mice into space — Amy, Sally, and Moe — these returned safely back to earth.
- 1961 — U.S launched an intelligent and trained chimpanzee Ham, into space. It became the first ape in space. It could perform various activities aboard like pulling levers. In the same year, another chimpanzee named Enos went into space; the Soviet sent a dog — Chernushka along with mice, frogs, and the first guinea pig — all landed safely; France sent Hector — a rat.
- 1963 — France sent a cat named Félicette in space. It’s the first and only cat in space and was safely recovered with the help of a parachute.
- 1964 — China launched mice and rats.
- 1966 — Soviet launched two dogs — Veterok and Ugolyok. It is till now, regarded as the longest spaceflight by dogs(22 days in orbit). In addition to this, the same year U.S launched flour beetles, parasitic wasps, plants, eggs(of frogs), bacteria, fungi, etc.
- 1967 — Argentina launched Belisario — a rat — was recovered successfully.
- 1968 — Soviet launched first animals in deep space, first to orbit the moon, and the first group of Horsefield’s tortoises, wine flies, mealworms — all survived.
- 1969 — U.S launched a macaque named Bonny on a 30-day orbit around our planet — was successfully recovered — but died the very next day. The same year, Argentina sent Cai monkey, a local breed into space, and was successfully recovered.
- 1972 — U.S sent nematodes in Apollo 16. The same year, Apollo 17, carried five pocket mice — Fe, Fo, Fi, Fum, and Phooey — they all orbitted moon for 6 day and one of them died.
- 1973 — U.S’s launched pocket mice, first spiders — Anita and Arabella, and first fish in space.
- 1975 — Soviet soyuz carried tortoises and remained in space for more than 90 days.
- 1985 — U.S launched two squirrel monkeys on Spaceshuttle.
- 1990 — China carried guinea pigs in space. In the same year, Japanese tree frogs were sent to Mir Space Station.
- 1995 — Japan sent its animals(a species of newts) on Space Flyer Unit.
- 2003 — U.S’s Columbia flight carried silkworms, bees, ants, and kill-fish.
- 2006 — Genesis I space habitat built by American firm Bigelow Aerospace sent many insects(cockroaches, ants, etc) and other organisms into space — making it the first flight to launch animals into space.
- 2007 — European Space Agency’s FOTON-M3 mission carried water bears — these survived for a period of 10 days — Nadezhda, a cockroach became the first creature been conceived in space.
- 2011 — U.S Space Shuttle Endeavour launched two golden spiders — Gladys and Esmeralda. In the same year, Fobos-Grunt mission planned to carry tardigrades on the surface of Mars, but unfortunately, the mission failed.
- 2012 — Medaka fish was sent to International Space Centre inside the Kibo module.
- 2013 — Iran launched animals(a mouse, worms, and turtles) into space and these returned successfully back.
- 2014 — Russia launched geckos but they died. In the same year, Space X CRS-4 mission took twenty mice to live in space.
- 2015 — Space X launched mice to live on International Space Station.
- 2016 — Space X sent mice in space.
- 2018 — Space X sent mice to International Space Station.
- 2019 — Chinese Chang’e 4 carried insects and seeds(rapeseed, cottonseed, etc) in space to test whether insects would hatch and plants would grow together.
- 2021 — Space X CRS-22 carried water bears and Hawaiian Bobtail Squid to International Space Station.
Conditions in space
Conditions in space are quite different from the ones that we experience here on earth. Some of these extreme conditions include:
- Microgravity — weightlessness, changes many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences when observed in space in comparison to when observed on earth.
- Extreme conditions — exposure to extreme heat and cold cycling,
high energy radiation, ultra-vacuum, etc. While testing the materials in space has provided the long life of components on earth as well.
Treaties and laws that ensure the safety of animals in space
Animals in space are cared humanely and ethically. Some of the laws and treaties that ensure the safety of animals are:
- U.S Department of Agriculture Animal Welfare Act — it is regularly reviewed by experts and various organisations. It’s the sole law in U.S that deals with animals under research. It keeps a check upon everything — ranging from animals in research to transportation.
- Public Services Act
- Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee — each of these committees are entrusted with the responsibility of reviewing protocols related to research and much more functions.
The above-mentioned acts protect the animals that are undergoing research and also mention a minimum number of standards that must be adhered to. In addition to the above-mentioned acts there are other treaties that deal either directly or indirectly with animals in space like Outer Space Treaty — 1967, NASA Principles for Ethical Care and Use of Animals, Convention on International Liability for Damage caused by Outer Space — 1972, etc. In addition to these, animals are treated with utmost care while in space.
Why did we launch different animals in space?
We launched a variety of animals in space at different times to study various phenomenon that affect animals and humans alike including:
- Fruitflies have a number of genes similar to humans. So studying them scientists could study the effects of space radiation on fruitflies and why they develop tumours.
- NASA conducted a mouse experiment in order to study a drug presently used to treat bone loss in chemotherapy.
- Snails were used because inner ear studies could be easily performed in them.
- Genetic experiments can be easily performed on a fish.
Animal Laboratories in space
- STS-51-B (Spacelab-3) was launched in 1985. Main function is to provide a high-quality microgravity environment for delicate materials processing and fluid experiment. It included observation of the behavior of the first contingent of animals living in a space environment.
- STS-61-A (Spacelab-D1) was launched in 1985. Its main function is to conduct a plethora of experiments, related to functions in microgravity.
- STS-40 (Spacelab Life Sciences 1 SLS-1) was launched in 1991. It’s dedicated to life sciences. It was solely dedicated to biology. SLS-1 experiments successfully studied six body systems; out of their 18 investigations, ten involved humans, seven involved rodents, and one was for jellyfish.
- STS-42 (International Microgravity Laboratory-1) was launched in 1992. Its main function is to process materials in space under the conditions of microgravity that cannot be achieved anywhere on Earth. For example, it examined how the cosmic rays and high energy and charged particles (HZE particles) cause mutation in the soil nematode (roundworm); and the experiment Chondrogenesis in Micromass Cultures of Mouse Limb Mesenchyme Exposed to Microgravity, studied how embryonic limb bone cells (chondrocytes) produce cartilage under microgravity conditions,etc.
- STS-47 (Spacelab-J), a joint venture between National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and NASA was launched in 1992. Its function involves conducting microgravity research in materials and life sciences. Test subjects included the Japanese koi fish (carp), fungi, chicken embryos, cultured animal and plant cells, fruit flies, plant seeds, etc.
- STS-65 (International Microgravity Laboratory-2) was launched in 1994. IML-2 consisted of over 80 experiments performed in microgravity and life sciences, including five life science experiments — out of them, two experiments using newts and jellyfish.
Result of animals in orbit
While carefully examining the animals in space, scientists have gathered a lot of useful information that includes:
- Fish and tadpoles swim in space but in loops as there is no up and down.
- Whenever light shines, fishes use it as a guiding source.
- In the absence of gravity, crickets aren’t able to balance due to a lack of growth balancing organs(these organs doesn’t develop in space).
What did we gain from animal spaceflights?
Animal spaceflights have helped humans a lot, especially, in the adaptation to space and its challenges. Following are the advantages of animal spaceflights:
- To ensure humans could survive in space.
- To study the lack of gravitational effects.
- Today, animal tests are helping scientists for the hazards that humans will face once they marked their presence on Mars or some other planet.
- To study how different life-forms thrive and survive in space(eg: how animals develop in weightlessness).
- The effects of sleep cycles, microgravity effects, blood pressure, and nervous system development.
- Knowledge obtained in space could be used to tackle animal health-related problems, here on earth.
- Anticipation experiments, etc.
Experimental Facilities
Some experiment facilities include:
Mouse Habitat Unit
It consists of Cell Biology Experiment Facility — In order to compare the effects of gravity, there are a total of six mouse cages that are in the microgravity compartment (upper part) and the 1-G compartment (lower part); Glove Box — It’s for performing maintenance, exchanging cages, and retrieving samples; and Cage — In a cage, one mouse can thrive for about 30 days (or more by replacing the cage).
NASA’s Rodent Habitat System
Its function is to examine the effects of microgravity on rodents. In addition to this, it provides information relevant to human spaceflights, various discoveries in basic biology, and the addition of knowledge as it can help treat human disease on Earth.
The survival of animals in space is closely related to human survival. These animals not only performed a service to their respective countries but to all the species, and to our planet as a whole. Various missions including landing humans on the surface of the moon to establishing the International Space Station wouldn’t have been possible if the animals hadn’t sacrificed their lives. Their sacrifices have converged in the pages of history, where these animals would always find their respective places next to humans. It wouldn’t be wrong if we give the credit for human endeavours into space to animals.
As days dimmed into nights and nights brightened up into days, it has been quite an interesting step-wise learning journey of taking animals into space — from hopelessness to zeal, from follies to perfection, from lack of technology to evolution of technology, and from a lot of failures to the ultimate success…..
