Exactly 60 years ago, on April 12, 1961, thee cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth. It was the beginning of the space conquest for man.
Human adventure questioning us about our origins, our destiny and our place in the universe, the idea of the conquest of space has always fascinated humanity. In AD 125, the Syrian author Lucien de Samosate already imagined Odysseus’ trip to the moon.
Before humans, therefore, there were first animals in air and space. In 1783, a hot air balloon took off from Versailles, in the presence of Louis XVI, with a rooster, a duck and a sheep on board. 180 years later, on November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union made the first space flight manned by a dog named Laika! She is sent into Earth orbit, with no way back to Earth, sacrificed in a way.
Laïka finally died seven hours after the launch of her capsule. In question: a failure of the temperature regulation system. In 1961, Laïka was followed by the American chimpanzee Ham, who returned to Earth in great shape.
Ham, the chimpanzee, had controls. When he succeeded, he had a reward for eating or drinking, much like humans for that matter!
Jean-François Clervoy, astronaut at ASE, president of Novespace
French space programs are not left out. They took the cat Félicette, or the monkey Martine on board the Véronique rocket. French scientists love female first names when it comes to experimenting.
Since then, we have continued to send animals into space: fish which, disoriented, swim in loops, spiders, which weave a messy web or flies, which prefer to walk on walls than to fly. After a few days, however, most do adapt.
Among the experiments carried out by astronauts, some relate to resistance in space. The champion turned out to be a small arthropod of a few tenths of a millimeter, the tardigrade. “When we place the tardigrade in the vacuum of space, its body varies in temperature from -200 ° C to + 150 ° C. When we bring them back under pressure and in a humid environment, they start to eat and reproduce again” specifies Jean-François Clervoy.
Last year, an Israeli probe crashed into the moon with a thousand cryptobiotic tardigrades on board, a state of metabolic pause allowing them to survive in extreme conditions. If they find favorable conditions, like water, they might wake up even after decades. Maybe a first animal colony on Mars, then.
The objective of animal flights in space is also the study of their metabolic and biological reactions. Scientists are thus trying to predict the effects of space vacuum and cosmic rays on the human body.
Both during my first flight with rats, and during my second flight with tadpoles, the flight allowed us to study the development of the inner ear of these animals, which allows us, with our eyes closed, to keep balance, to have a perception of movement.
Jean-François Clervoy, astronaut
In 2015, NASA sent 20 mice to the International Space Station to study muscle atrophy and long-stay bone loss, a central concern for astronauts.
If, like Elon Musk, we wish to colonize other planets, we will have to reproduce. Many experiments have therefore attempted to understand the effects of weightlessness on fertilization.
In 1996, the “Fertile” experiment aboard the Mir Orbital Station showed the delays and abnormalities in the development of the embryo in space. As for human mating, it is still a taboo subject. Rumors say that in 1982, there was a relationship between astronauts, between two members of a crew of a space mission.
Life outside our planet will therefore pass through the living, animal or plant, by recreating a biodiverse system.
“Long live the animals and long live the humans in space, with all the plants that will allow them to develop biodiversity in the very distant future, when we will be able to colonize other celestial bodies, but it is not for today”, precise Jean-François Clervoy.
In the meantime, the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet should in turn find the international space station in a few days. Departure scheduled for April 22.
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