Not many people don't know about the U.S. moon landing, but did you know that the astronauts, who made six trips to the moon more than 50 years ago, took 60 minutes to put on their space suits? Moreover, each suit is a customized one-off item that cannot be used more than once, even by the same person.
And the success of the U.S. manned lunar landing is not overnight, before mankind set foot on the moon, the United States and the Soviet Union, which at the time had a relatively advanced technology in the field of the country, more than once a variety of animals into space, so the first to return to Earth from space is not a person, but a monkey.
Now, we have established the so-called space station in the space outside the Earth, this special spacecraft can let more than one astronauts at the same time in the above work and live, when the above life supplies are used up, or need to replace some equipment, it will be able to through the space shuttle, manned spaceships, or unmanned spacecraft to carry out the transportation, as for each time to carry out the task of choosing which kind of spacecraft to transport, depends on the specific needs of the delivery. The choice of vehicle for each mission depended on the specific delivery requirements. But before 1961, when the first generation of spaceflight was introduced, space was an unknown world where no Earth creature had ever traveled.
So sending animals into space became the focus of experiments by scientists from many countries, but the animals were chosen differently, for example, the first animal sent into space was a stray dog from the USSR called Laika, which was destined to never come back, because when it was chosen to travel on Sputnik 2, it was not going to be able to return. But when he was selected to travel on the Sputnik 2, he was doomed, because Soviet scientists in 1957 didn't know how to get the rocket back to Earth. Even though Laika's life ended in space, it inspired astronauts to dream of eventually reaching the greater reaches of the universe, and the Soviet Union later erected a statue of the stray dog that never died.
American scientists, on the other hand, favored monkeys, and a number of them were sacrificed in defective rockets that had been launched before, such as Albert 3, Albert 4, and Albert 5, three of which died accidentally before they even entered space. In fact, it wasn't until 1959 that the U.S. sent a rhesus monkey into space, only to have it die while having its electrodes removed after returning to Earth.
The first monkey to go into space and return to Earth was a chimpanzee, named Ham, who returned to Earth without any special reward, and spent the rest of his 17 years at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where his survival was significantly shorter than the average life expectancy of his kind. The scientists' rush to space suits is actually based on this real data, which is why humans can now explore the universe more broadly, fundamentally inseparable from the huge contribution made by these animals in the early days of space exploration.
As we all know, there are many star systems of different sizes in the universe, and the solar system in which our planet is located is just one of them, and even the larger Milky Way is like an island in the universe. Simply put, the universe is full of unknown worlds too much, we have ever set foot on the moon, as well as the future extraterrestrial planet target Mars, are located in the solar system, and relatively close to the planet, but before we go to the farther unknown world, it may be more need to put foot on the ground will be progressively more difficult.
In space, there are a lot of extreme environments that must be overcome, and there are also the occasional unexpected event that can happen, and the lack of oxygen, low temperatures, and rays are relatively minor problems, because our current space suits can do a lot to keep astronauts out of that environment. At the same time, space suits can also help astronauts to realize that the pressure is roughly the same as that of the Earth, and the excreta will be properly disposed of, and there is also a difference between space suits for extravehicular use (consisting of vacuum insulation, liquid-cooled suits and the outermost layer of the three parts) and emergency space suits for use on board the capsule.
Nowadays, the Earth's climate is becoming less and less suitable for human habitation, and we see a lot of news about endangered species and even extinction every year, while the Earth is now in the relatively most stable period of its own life cycle. Imagine, as the Earth and the solar system's own evolutionary stage of progress, the temperature of the Earth will become higher and higher, and some of the production activities of human beings will exacerbate the progression of this change, which is why the global warming trend in recent centuries has been more prominent than before.
In the long run, sooner or later, the Earth will become completely uninhabitable, just as it has been in previous mass extinctions. That is to say, the human descendants to long to thrive in this world, then the search for a second Earth is an imperative thing, not to mention the search for another planet that can allow life to survive, in itself, is a particularly difficult thing. We can basically lock down the location and basic information of more than 4,000 exoplanets, but our current science and technology still makes it difficult to search for the existence of more potentially habitable planets, which is why we need generations of scientists to work hard and explore.
When we couldn't predict the risk factor, we used to use other animals as pioneers, most notably rats, but monkeys contributed to the history of human spaceflight.
Before mankind took the giant leap into aviation, our monkey brethren were often sent into space to "scout" for us, mostly in the name of scientific research, but largely to horrible fates.
Before anyone went into space, we knew very little about how the human body reacted to increased altitude, the Soviet Union was the first to take dogs to high altitudes, and American researchers decided to send primates into space as experiments because primates are a lot like us.
Monkeys named AlbertIn June 1948, a rhesus monkey named Albert was launched by NASA's V2 rocket, and sadly, Albert suffocated to death when he flew 63 kilometers off the ground.
A year later, another monkey named Albert (II) flew 134 kilometers, making him the first primate to actually reach the altitude of space.
Although Albert II survived this launch, he died on his return to Earth when his parachute failed to open and he hit the Earth directly.
Pictured: Albert I
Albert III and IV were killed on their flights in late 1949, and Albert V suffered another parachute failure in 1951.
Well, it seems that no monkey named Albert ever ends well, and this next one, who changed his nickname, finally survived, but not for long.
In 1951, Yorick (previously known as Albert VI) survived after flying 72 kilometers off the ground.
However, Albert's Curse remained, and he suffered fatal heat exhaustion while waiting to be released from his cramped metal capsule in the hot New Mexico sun, and went straight to his grave.
Monkeys with other names1959 marked a milestone in monkey space travel, when a squirrel monkey named Miss Baker and a rhesus monkey named Miss Able not only reached an altitude of 483 kilometers, but also returned alive.
Pictured: Miss Baker
But it wasn't for long, because within days of Miss Baker's return, she was given medical surgery to remove her electrodes, which proved fatal, and she was put on the poop list
For her part, Miss Baker went on to live a long and happy life, marrying twice, and eventually dying in 1984 of kidney failure at the age of 27. People still put bananas on his headstone.
In December 1959, a rhesus monkey named Sam (an acronym for the U.S. Air Force School of Aeronautics and Astronautics) lifted off on the Mercury capsule Little Joe.
Sam
After reaching an altitude of just 82 kilometers, the spacecraft aborted its mission, but landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean, where Sam was safe after a short trip.
Soon after, in January 1960, Sam's companion, Miss Sam, was also launched in a Mercury capsule. The mission was minimally fruitful, landing after reaching an altitude of 15 kilometers.
Fortunately, on both missions, the two monkeys named Sam came back safely and without any curses or after-effects.
Putting people in spaceWhile the Soviet Union was busy sending dogs into the sky and France was busy experimenting with intergalactic cats, America's experiments with monkeys paved the way for bigger primates (orangutans to make their debut), and eventually humans went into space.
In January 1961, a chimpanzee named Ham embarked on a suborbital space flight that reached an altitude of 253 kilometers. Although Ham was slightly dehydrated, he survived the 16.5-minute flight unscathed, marking a leap forward in space technology.
Pictured: Ham
In April of the same year, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin piloted the Vostok spacecraft to complete its orbit around the Earth, making him the first human in space.
Soon after the May, the U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard became the second person into space, why to say this second person? Because this period of the United States and the Soviet Union in the sky into the ground all kinds of competition, this time the United States fell a full month after, have to mention.
Although human space travel is becoming safer and more popular, it hasn't completely stopped primate experiments in space.
In late 1961, a squirrel monkey named Goliath was killed in an Atlas E rocket launched by the Air Force at Cape Canaveral (USA).
In 1969, a guinea pig named Bonnie joined the ranks of the "poop monkeys" when she suffered a fatal heart attack caused by dehydration after spending nine days in space.
FinallyIn the 1980s, the Soviet Union began launching a series of satellites called Bion to put pairs of monkeys into orbit. The series continued until the launch of Bion 11 on December 24, 1996, which carried the monkeys Lapik and Multik on a 14-day flight, in which Multik was killed in action.
The monkey's death finally brought to light the ethical issues of using animals for research, and caring people around the world began to call for an end to this practice.
It's true that there weren't any "space monkeys" for a long time after that, but of course that was largely due to the fact that the technology had matured to the point where monkeys weren't needed as pioneers.
But in 2011, after experimenting with rats, turtles, and worms, Iran started trying to send monkeys into space, and in 2013, a monkey named Fargam was sent 120 kilometers into space.
Fortunately, the fate of this Iranian monkey was not so tragic, and it returned safely to Earth, while humans ended the story of space monkeys.
References:
Team Pickle.The sad story of the first monkeys and apes in space. nine
< p> Monkeys and apes in space. WikipediaLong before human spaceflight, mankind sent a large number of animals into space in order to test the possibility of creatures going into space, among them monkeys.
In the early days of the United States, three monkeys were sent into space.
The first monkey, Albert 3, Albert 3 was rather tragic, as the rocket he was traveling on exploded, destroying the machine, including everything, and Albert 3's body.
The second monkeys were Albert 4, and Albert 5, but both were unsuccessful, and both died on the way to the rocket launch, due to various accidents.
The world's first living creature to go into space was a stray dog named Laika, who went into space in 1957 as a Soviet-trained space dog cosmonaut aboard Sputnik 2. But this success came at a price: Laika was destined to die in space.
Because of technological limitations at the time, humans hadn't figured out how to get back to Earth from space, so Laika was aboard a rocket that didn't have a return capsule, which meant that Laika would never make it back.
Later, the Soviet Union erected a statue of Laika in the country to recognize his contribution to humanity, and it was because of this that the human race saw the possibility of going into space.
Laika's success in space has inspired space agencies around the world, and the United States has renewed its efforts to study how to send monkeys into space, and to add one more thing, the animals that will be sent into space in each country are a little different, with the United States favoring monkeys, the former Soviet Union favoring dogs, and the United Kingdom getting cats.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the US trained a lot of monkeys, though many were sacrificed in these experiments due to design flaws in the rockets.
It wasn't until 1959 that the U.S. sent a macaque, a squirrel, into space, and luckily they weren't doomed to have a go like Lycra, but ended up returning safely to Earth, except that the macaque died from anesthesia when the electrodes were removed.
In 1961, the U.S. successfully sent another chimpanzee, Ham, into space, followed by Enos the chimpanzee, both of whom made it into space and back.
Except that due to space rays and the increase in ultraviolet light, their lifespans were nowhere near as long as those of the apes who grew up on Earth. Enos died of dysentery a year after returning to Earth, while Ham was given only an apple and half an orange as a reward for his successful return to Earth, and was then sent to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where he died 17 years later at the age of 25, well below the average lifespan of a chimpanzee. National space agencies have since improved spacesuit measures based on this data.
Whether it was Ham or Enos and Lycra, these animals had no easier training than people before they went into space.
In the case of chimpanzee Ham, for example, he was trained in light and sound before going into space, such as pushing a putter within 5 seconds of seeing a blue flash, and receiving a snack if he succeeded, or a mild electric shock if he failed.
There's also the simulation of eating in weightlessness in an Earth capsule, and all sorts of rigorous training.
It's because of their dedication that we've gotten precious data on animals living in space, making an outstanding contribution to mankind's ascent into space. So whether it's chimpanzees or stray dogs and cats, they are true astronauts, heroes of mankind, and deserve our respect.