

Experimental Animal Decompressions to a Near-Vacuum Environment [1965] [pdf] - danso
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660005052.pdf

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danso
BTW I was interested in Googling for this after reading this New Yorker essay
on the costs of colonizing Mars:

[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/project-
exodus-...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/project-exodus-
critic-at-large-kolbert)

> _The pressure differential also had unhappy gastric consequences. The
> ballooning dogs expelled air from their bowels; this led frequently—and
> simultaneously—to defecation, urination, and projectile vomiting. The
> animals suffered what looked like grand-mal seizures, and their tongues
> froze. (This last effect was a result of heat loss through rapid
> evaporation.) All told, a hundred and twenty-six dogs were tested in the
> chamber, for varying lengths of time. Of those which spent two minutes in
> simulated space, a third died. The rest deflated and, eventually, recovered.
> Among those which remained in a vacuum for three minutes, the mortality
> figure climbed to two-thirds._

 _I came across “Experimental Animal Decompressions to a Near-Vacuum
Environment” while reading up on the One-Year Mission. Maybe it’s just a sign
of my geocentric bias, but I was struck by the correspondences. For all his
training and his courage, Kelly is basically just another test mammal. Like
the dogs, he’s been sealed in an airtight chamber to see how much his body can
take. And in both experiments the results, at least in their broad outline,
are totally predictable._

HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9601697](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9601697)

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tilt_error
No animals were harmed in the making of this report.

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mjevans
Which is a report on the report in which animals were harmed. Let us remember
them as martyrs to science and the knowledge required to preserve many more
intelligent lives in the future.

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effie
How is harmful treatment of animals required to preserve intelligent lives?

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mjevans
Today, maybe not so much. However as we become a space-fairing species knowing
the limits to which things must be designed (examples, blast shutters in
films/anime and self-sealing blobs from scifi/anime) will help. Knowing the
causes of death might also enable a better focus for pre/post treatment and
medical research/supply staging.

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CyberpunkDad
For something supposedly from 1965 it looks a lot like a LaTex document. Was
layout that good back in 65?

~~~
sawthat
Have you seen a book or magazine from before computers? LaTeX replicates what
professional typesetters did.

