Orangutans joke in space.

Although people in ancient times yearned for the starry universe, they could only "explore" space through naked eye observation and imagination. However, with the advent of the industrial revolution and the rapid development of scientific and technological civilization in human society, going into space is no longer an empty talk. Before man went into space, animals had been sitting in the space capsule as pioneers.

The first animal that went into space from the earth in history was a puppy named Lycra. It did not return to Earth after completing its mission, because Soviet scientists did not design a return plan. Lycra died on 1957. Four years after his death, another animal was sent into space.

I don't know if you have seen a movie called "Space Chimpanzees", which is about a chimpanzee family in the United States. Several generations are responsible for carrying out space missions. In fact, the film is not fiction, because the United States did train a group of chimpanzees with space exploration missions in the last century. Today we are going to talk about the chimpanzee "Ham".

Ham was singled out because Ham was only three years old and was the first chimpanzee to eat crabs. At that time, both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to win the holy grail of manned space flight first. Considering the similarity between chimpanzees and humans, American scientists specially selected dozens of chimpanzees for space training in the African jungle, and Hamm performed well.

It started training when it was less than one year old. In order to enable Ham to complete the calculation task, scientists designed an acousto-optic experiment for it. For example, ham can get food by manipulating the push rod after seeing the flash, and will be punished by a slight electric shock if it does not move.

In addition, Ham has passed many physical examinations and stress tests, and he passed every performance. 196 1 year, 1 year, Ham took the Mercury II space capsule. Ham didn't show any unusual nervousness before leaving. When the spaceship lifted off, it flew away. Unexpectedly, midway, the plan broke down.

It turned out that the flight path angle designed by scientists at that time was higher than the actual situation. Ham should have been sent to a space area about 370 miles from the earth, but the spacecraft took it to an area about 504 miles from the earth. In this way, the oxygen content is much lower than originally planned. Without enough oxygen, life on earth can't survive at all.

At that time, Ham shuttled through space for six minutes, and the speed of the spacecraft reached an average of 16092 miles per hour. Ham experienced a feeling of weightlessness 100 times more thrilling than a roller coaster. Nearly 17 minutes later, Ham returned to Earth with the capsule, which plunged directly into the Atlantic Ocean.

Ham was fine when the rescuers opened the hatch. Seeing the person in front, he raised his left hand as if to say, "Hold me down quickly." In order to reward Ham for his bravery and contribution, the scientist took out an apple and gave it to Ham. Ham chewed excitedly, as if he had not been negatively affected at all.

After space travel, Ham traveled to major zoos in the United States and spent his last few years in the North Carolina Zoo. Under normal circumstances, the average life expectancy of chimpanzees is 35 to 40 years, but Ham only lives to 1983, which is significantly lower than other similar years. I wonder if there is any influence from that space trip. Ham's contribution was not lost to later human astronauts.