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Russians Reveal Early Death of Laika
jonerik writes "Contrary to long-believed Soviet reports that Laika the space dog - the first living animal to be launched into orbit from Earth - lived for a week or so after she was launched into orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in November 1957, CNN is now reporting that Dimitri Malashenkov of the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow has presented a scientific paper at the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas in which he revealed that Laika actually died a few hours after launch due to thermal insulation problems overheating the cabin interior. Sputnik 2 remained in orbit a total of 162 days, before burning up in the atmosphere on April 14, 1958."
> died a few hours after launch due to thermal insulation problems overheating the cabin interior :)
China is just looking for new ways to cook dogs alive without animal rights organisations close by
Before you email me, remember: "There is no god!"
I remember a french comic named "proteo" where a green-java-like alien observing the earth space race substracted laika from the vesel and adopted her as a mascot. Even as a little kid i knew it was just fantasy but I always want it to be true. RIP laika
16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
Hot-dogs anyone?
I couldnt resist...
The original story didn't make much sense.Seeing that the room for payload in sputnik-2 was probably on the order of 20lbs, how could she have lived for a few weeks without food and water?
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
Funny how the old science books from way back in middle school neglect to mention that she never came back alive after being the first animal in space. I guess you don't want kids unecessarily grieving over an acheivement that only merits a few sentences. Oh well, I suppose it wouldn't be in a science book's editor's interest to turn a young budding scientist into a young budding animal rights activist.
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
Well, it was a biological experiment, not just a technogical one. It was important that they observe the dog's unadulterated biological reaction to the weightless environment. What if weightlessness had some acute biological consequence?
In the end, they did gather important data about life support in space capsules ("don't insulate so well"). So, yea, I agree it wasn't humane treatment, but at least it wasn't gratuitous.
The angel in the oatmeal.
Would you prefer they sent a person up as an initial test?.. yourself perhaps?
I never met a Space Dog I didn't Laika!
...that is unless you belong to a UFO cult like the Raelians and think we're originally from outer space.
Oh, well...
Anyway, I think its interesting to remember that Dogs made it into space before humans.
Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
That's nothing, you should see what they do to monkeys! No cooking required!
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"they are pet rights organizations.. they dont give a shit about beef and poultry, but if its cute and cuddly and can be bought at a pet store, it all the sudden deserves rights..
if we kept pet cows or chickens or pigs in USA, and ate dogs, and china ate cows/chickens/pigs, the "animal" rights whackos would protest that instead...
But having a dog burn to death is a terrible, terrible thing.
Our house burnt down when I was 6, and I watched as our family's golden retriever -- coincidentally named "Lucky" -- was trapped under a burning dresser it slept by in the living room. It let out howls of torment that haunt me to this day as it died slowly being helplessly charred as my mom covered my tearful eyes and my father was unable to save it.
So please show some respect for Laika.
If it involves the Soviet Union, then it has to be listed as such, the CIA and FBI just can't release the pertinent files that explain the "biomedical problem", (insert recent space alien conspircy with the Top Level US government officials here)
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
I'm really surprised they didn't include a humane method of euthanizing the animal in the spacecraft.
Reportedly Sputnik 2's food delivery system included a "last meal" - a poison pill which would have euthanized Laika painlessly rather than allowing her to suffocate or starve to death. However, since she didn't survive long enough to eat the entire food supply, it was never used.
"but at least it wasn't gratuitous"
Yeah, just think of all the good to humanity that was done by shooting a dog into space. Ok, I'm off to bleed some dogs to death to uh, figure out uh, how long they live, uh, or something.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
"...and they are able to speak, informing the scientists what is happening to them."
Yeah, but someone yelling "OHMYGODITBUUUURNS!!!!" isn't much better than what they had.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
<whine> "Animals have feelings too..." </whine>
As a scientist who studies cognition in all animals, including humans, I can tell you that in the case of any mammal, while their feelings are not the same as ours, they're pretty damn close.
Luckily, they don't have the same broad autobiographical understanding of 'self', and hence don't feer death in the same way (they typically have a very shallow understanding of death, but still obviously fear pain)
Having said that; I aggee with your first statement, but probably not with specifically which traits.
/..sig file not found - permission denied.
I never heard of this history. To think that they launched that poor defenseless puppy knowing full well that it would eventually die of starvation/lack of oxygen is horrible. Such inhumane treatment. The people that did this should be ashamed!
We humans kill animals for a large number of reasons: food, clothing, entertainment and science.
Out of these, the animals killed for science are relatively limited in numbers, but large in their payoff to man. In this case the payoff was priceless information about how to set up a cabin.
If you are so concerned about animals I suggest you focus your struggle on the entertainment portion (hunting, animal fights), then food and clothing, science last.
Tor
I'm curious what the most "scientific" available test for this is myself - the problem isn't really any different than determining whether OTHER HUMAN BEINGS have feelings or not...
Seriously. I mean, if people can think that John Travolta shows 'feelings' when he's acting, surely others could be faking it...how do I know that I'm not the only human being in the world gifted with "feelings" while everyone else is a mindless robot who's just pretending?
Outside of a "hard science" context, that's a pretty nonsensical question - we "just know" other people (in general) have feelings. "I just know" is nowhere near sufficient for real science, though.
Anyone with significant interaction with other (nonhuman) mammals "just knows" those animals have feelings, too, but it's rather difficult to prove in a "hard science" sort of way. I suspect the best that can be done is comparisons of brain scans and such between humans and non-humans to the extent that one can say in a more-or-less "hard science" way - "it is probable that other mammals have subjective feelings similar in quality to those of human beings, or at least, that is the most likely explanation for the similarities of response."
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
He was my favorite character on "Taxi."
"Tank you very much."
is Laika, by the Spanish group Mecano. Rough translation:
She was Russian and her name was Laika
she was a very normal dog
she went from being a common animal
to be a world star.
They put her into a spaceship
to observe the reaction
She was the first astronaut
in outer space.
---
Ready is the rocket for take off
ground control tells Laika goodbye.
---
In base everything was silent
waiting for any signal.
All with the helmets to their ears
heard the dog bark.
While on Earth a great party,
shouting, laughter, crying and champagne,
Laika looked out through the window.
"What is that colored ball?
And why am I going around it?".
---
One night, on the telescope
a new light appeared
nobody could give an explanation
to the appearance of the new sun.
And if we listen to the legend
then we'll have to think
that on Earth there is one less dog
and on the sky one more star.
Or even better yet, a criminal animal rights activist.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I went to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum and took the 1 hour tour with the guide. When we reached the mockup of sputnik 1, the tour guide said that then the Soviets donated it (didn't ask when it was donated tho) they admitted that the dog died because the A/C system on it failed.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
I'm really surprised they didn't include a humane method of euthanizing the animal in the spacecraft. I think it's very sad.
Given Soviet history ethics would have had little to do with it. Politics might have motivated such a system, or at least motivated a false claim to have had such a system. Even in the post-Stalin kinder gentler Soviet Union look how they treated people, their own highly trained Cosmonauts, genuine heros: take away pressure suits and you can fit three in a two man capsule. One valve failure during re-entry and all were lost, bubbles forming in their blood as cabin pressure is lost (think of shaking a soda can and popping the top).
Well, if you're going to go all scientifically philosophical on us, how can you be sure that we exist at all? Maybe we're just figments of your imagination? ;-)
Just what assumptions you have to make to "prove" that others have feelings would be interesting to discuss though.
Stefan Axelsson
Obviosuly you dont understand Schrodinger's cat if you say it died. The cat is not killed. Schrodinger has simply created several alternate universes in which some of the time the cat dies and sometimes it doesn't.
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