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Space Science

Russians Reveal Early Death of Laika 72

Posted by michael from the where-no-dog-had-gone-before dept.
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."
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Russians Reveal Early Death of Laika More

Russians Reveal Early Death of Laika

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  • That explains why China is working on a space prog (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ashran ( 107876 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @06:07PM (#4559679) Homepage
    > 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 :)

  • lame (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Baikala ( 564096 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @06:14PM (#4559750) Journal
    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

  • Damn I hungry... (Score:5, Funny)

    by xagon7 ( 530399 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @06:21PM (#4559820)
    Hot-dogs anyone?

    I couldnt resist...

  • of course she died. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jericho4.0 ( 565125 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @07:46PM (#4560545)
    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?

    • Re:of course she died. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Uhh, the dog had food and water for 10 days. that has been public for a long time....

  • Ethics of this (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Locke!Erasmus ( 588304 )
    I'm really surprised they didn't include a humane method of euthanizing the animal in the spacecraft. I think it's very sad.

    • Re:Ethics of this (Score:5, Insightful)

      by !splut ( 512711 ) <sput AT alum DOT rpi DOT edu> on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @08:25PM (#4560787) Journal
      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.

      • "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.
    • Are you sure you aren't thinking of Schrodinger's Cat? Or the Nazi's weird pseudo-medical experiments? Of course if this was done in the United States... PETA would file a lawsuit faster than you can say "Double Cheeseburger"
      • 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.

    • Re:Ethics of this (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30, 2002 @06:29AM (#4563112)
      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.
    • 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).

  • science books (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eamonman ( 567383 ) <eamonman2&hotmail,com> on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @08:02PM (#4560634) Journal
    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.

    • Re:science books (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Mr. Slippery ( 47854 ) <tms&infamous,net> on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @09:30PM (#4561123) Homepage
      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.


      You speak as if the two are mutually exclusive.

      Science has continually worked against anthrocentrism - the belief than humans are somehow "special" in the universe. The philosophy of animal rights is simply the application of this anti-anthrocentrism to ethical questions.

      • The philosophy of animal rights is simply the application of this anti-anthrocentrism to ethical questions.

        Ummm...NO.

        Animal Rights is a form of anthropomorphising, attributing (wrongly) human traits to animals.

        To quote:

        <whine>
        "Animals have feelings too..."
        </whine>

        Eradicating the rather silly belief that humans are somehow 'special' would have the result of allowing Gov't funded research, here in the US, of embryonic stemcells.

        • Re:science books (anthropomorphising) (Score:4, Informative)

          by jungd ( 223367 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2002 @10:14AM (#4564352)
          Animal Rights is a form of anthropomorphising, attributing (wrongly) human traits to animals.

          <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.

          • I can accept that. :)

            Something I've always wanted to know... just HOW does one go about determining whether animals have feelings or not? They obviously can't communicate on anything more than the most primitive of yes/no concepts.
            • just HOW does one go about determining whether animals have feelings or not?

              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."

              • 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?

                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.

        • Animal Rights is a form of anthropomorphising, attributing (wrongly) human traits to animals.

          No. You're clearly unfamiliar with philosophical thought in the area.

          "Animals have feelings too..."

          The only being I am sure has feelings (is possessed of the capability to suffer, is sentient, is the "subject-of-a-life") is me.

          Based on structural and behavioral similarities, I conclude that other humans probably have the same property. Those same structural and behavioral similarities inexorably lead to the conclusion that, to some degree, non human animals also share that property.

          Indeed, it's a non-sequitor of the highest order to claim that "Animals are like humans, so we can get good research data from doing cruel things to them, and it's ok to do so because they're nothing like humans."

          Eradicating the rather silly belief that humans are somehow 'special' would have the result of allowing Gov't funded research, here in the US, of embryonic stemcells.

          Um...and this relates to animal rights how? Stemcells have no subjectivity. I don't have an problem with research involving them.

          Now, if you want to do these tests on non-consenting humans or other animals, then there's an issue, but it's orthoganal to the use of stem cells.

    • 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.

      I think they failure to mention the fate of the dog had a completely different reason: namely that it was considered utterly irrelevant. Fifty years ago there were no animal rights activists. People simply did not make an issue out of a dead dog back then.

      Tor

  • Hee hee... (Score:3, Funny)

    by C0LDFusion ( 541865 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @09:53PM (#4561218) Journal
    I never met a Space Dog I didn't Laika!

    Oh, well...

    Anyway, I think its interesting to remember that Dogs made it into space before humans.



    ...that is unless you belong to a UFO cult like the Raelians and think we're originally from outer space.
  • Since when is "death within hours" a "biomedical problem"?
    • 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)

  • Make all the jokes you want... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SexyKellyOsbourne ( 606860 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2002 @12:28AM (#4561951) Journal
    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.
  • Some accounts of the mission indicated that the last food pellets within the probe had a fast acting poision to at least make Laika's death fast and relatively humane.

    Of course this is now quite moot.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • "Dogs are People Too!"
    - Radar O'Reilly, M*A*S*H
  • First off, I think it is terribly sad the dog died up there (I was aware of the Laika story except for the part where she never came back down to earth).
    However, what some people tend to forget is they aren't sending someone's pet dog up there they send their own dogs (animals) that they breed and raise specifically for laboratory animal tests..At least that is what they do here, in the USA.
    Anyway, the point is she probably didn't have a very good quality life to begin with nor would she have come home to one (if she had survived, though it turns out it was rigged so she'd die up there anyway.) so while it doesn't make it not cruel, she was damned if she did and damned if she didn't.. Just like the whole issue of testing animals in any laboratory experiments..Well, we could test on animals or we can test on humans, -pick your poison..I'm sure nobody at the time wanted to shoot up their old Aunt Birtha, so I think that kind of limited them to picking an animal :)

    Why a dog? I dunno. I'd rather they picked another critter but that is because like most Americans I was raised with the idea that dogs are "pets" and to be treated more highly than say what we consider traditional "food animals" such as cows.
    There are other countries where if you sent a cow you'd have just murdered your Great Uncle Ralph (or so they believe).. Their wasn't any other way around it other than creating a robot that could accurately mimic real flesh and blood creatures reactions to stimuli.

    BTW "Laika" is also the name of a specicfic breed of Russian dog called East Siberian Laika..Also West Siberian Laika..I've heard from Laika people that the space dog was one of those.. However, I've always read in Science books she was a mix breed.

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