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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.
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.
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.
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.
<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