Stratomouse," published in Military Medicine in 1956, Dr. Webb Haymaker of the Neuropathology Section of the AFIP, tells of the adventures and misadventures of the reception crew as they chased an unpredictable balloon in an ancient and vibratory C-47 plane, a truck, and a taxicab across North Dakota, into Montana, and back to Minnesota — to find that 90 out of 93 precious mice were alive and well, while autopsies of the three that were dead disclosed no effects of cosmic rays. 28[1]
The investigation as to the effects of cosmic rays upon the central nervous system of animals was continued for several years, the latest experiment having been conducted at Fort Churchill, Canada, in the summer of 1961. In this experiment, 8 monkeys and 24 mice were sent aloft nearly 24 miles, where they floated for about 10 hours.
Another area of the activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in which the support of the Institute's Animal Care Branch was used, was in the animal flights into space which were an essential preliminary to the manned flights of Project Mercury. Personnel of the Institute who had received special training in handling chimpanzees were deployed in the anticipated landing areas to care for the animals after they had landed from their flights. The skeleton of one of the animals, "Able" whose death did not result from his flight, but from a subsequent operation, is an exhibit of interest in the Medical Museum.
Like everything else connected with space exploration, bioastronautics, as space medicine is beginning to be known, is growing in interest and importance. In connection with man's entry into space, the Institute has conducted studies of radiation, decompression, rapid acceleration and deceleration, and hypoxia, and the correlation of basic sciences with such specialized studies. The results are made available to Project Mercury, particularly through the membership of the Director of the Institute on the team of medical specialists that support the manned flights of the project. Thus, Colonel Townsend participated in the arrangements and conduct of the suborbital flight of Cdr. Alan B. Shephard, Jr., USN, on 1-5 May 1961 ; the like flight of Capt. Virgil I. Grissom, USAF, on 17-21 July 1961 ; the orbital flight of Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC, on 12-21 February 1962; and the second orbital flight, that of Lt. Cdr. Malcolm Scott Carpenter, USN, on 23-26 May 1962. Colonel Townsend was represented in the six-orbital flight of Cdr. Walter M. Schirra, Jr., USN, by Lt. Col. David Auld, USAF, MC, who was detailed to serve on the team at Cape Canaveral, Fla., from 29 September to 5 October 1962.
- ↑ 28 Haymaker, Webb: Operation Stratomouse. Military Medicine 119: 151—171, September 1956.
