Before the end of World War II, the United States wanted to catch up with the Soviet Union and accelerate Japan's unconditional surrender by dropping atomic bombs, so as to gain more international strategic advantages. It can be seen that this kind of international competition has become very fierce before the end of the war.
Sixty-one years ago, the United States wanted to send a gorilla into space to accelerate their exploration of space. But when the Americans launched the program, they found that a lot of things were already wrong. So today we will go into history and look at this past.
Humanity wanted to fly into the sky, and this wish was fulfilled before the First World War. But by the time of World War II, mankind not only had aircraft carriers, but also had fighter jets, then the sky was no longer the only high-altitude field that humans wanted to explore, which country could go to space first, which was also a manifestation of the strength of a great power.
In order to seize more international strategic advantages after World War II, in addition to frantically plundering battlefield victories, the United States is also laying out a more all-round international competition. So in the field of outer space, Americans do not want to lose their advantage.
Sixty-one years ago, the United States decided to let astronauts enter space through an experiment to replace astronauts before soaring into outer space, which was equivalent to paving the way.
In November 1957, Russian scientists selected a hound named Laika and successfully landed Lycra into space through advanced scientific and technological power. However, through the surveillance information at that time, it was found that after Laika entered space, its state was very unoptimistic, not only did it appear restless, violently punching the space capsule and other fierce behaviors, but also Laika has not been taken back to Earth by Russians.
So after reading Laika's story, people felt sad about it. But in the history of human exploration of space, laika's position seems to be no other creature to replace.
The United States did not believe in this evil, and they targeted chimpanzees.
In fact, when the United States does many kinds of experiments, it seems that it prefers to choose chimpanzees. As if they were imitating and trying to surpass the Soviet Union, when american scientists selected a group of chimpanzees 61 years ago in a group of 40 chimpanzees.
Among these chimpanzees was a chimpanzee named Hamm, who was 6 years old at the time. Although it is a wild animal in the African savannah, it crossed the Atlantic Ocean for hunting and trading reasons and came to a zoo in the United States. Because of Hams's wit and flexibility, he is loved by tourists.
Suddenly, Hamm became a big star in the local amusement park. Later, when the U.S. military selected the experimental products, it set its sights on Hamm's body.
And in a screening of 40 gorillas, Hamm quickly stood out. After American scientists decided to send Hamm into space, they also laid out a new plan, that is, to do better than the Soviets. For example, the Soviet hound Lycra was not brought back to Earth, so they decided to send Hamm back into space and bring it back.
The Americans seemed to think that as long as such a plan was achieved, they could show the strength of the United States at that time, which was stronger than that of the Soviet Union.
Hamm first underwent two-and-a-half years of training, and it wouldn't behave very aggressively in the capsule like Laika did when he entered space.
Among these trainings, the most typical is banana training. When Ham sees a black flash for 5 seconds, the putter in the cabin is moved, and if Ham completes the putter command, he will receive a banana as a reward.
By analogy, if Hamm doesn't complete the instructions while training on bananas, he will also be punished. This deepened Hamm's physical memory of carrying out the order and seemed to raise the likelihood that Hamm would return alive. Although all this went in a good direction, it was not long before American scientists realized that many things were not as simple as they thought.
At the end of January 1961, Ham traveled in a spacecraft 252 kilometers from Earth. In fact, their original plan was to fly 185 kilometers. But in order to be able to exceed the task, American scientists let the spacecraft carrying Hamm continue to fly for 6 minutes in outer space at a speed of 8,046 kilometers per hour.
In the end, Hamm experienced a capsule crash in the 17th minute, and finally the ship was successfully recovered deep in the Atlantic Ocean. Surprisingly, the world's first chimpanzee to land in space did not have a tragic and hasty ending like Laika. Hamm was not only alive, but with great humor, he held an apple in one hand and an orange in the other, and he seemed to be very satisfied with the trip.
People around the world began to cheer, because chimpanzees can be representatives of mammals, it can be successfully landed in outer space and then safely return to Earth, so can humans also complete the same task, and the chance of being harmed will be small?
At that time, all the international spearheads were pointed at the Soviet Union, for example, some media criticized Soviet scientists for not choosing a hunting dog in mammals as experimental objects, and still making it not return to Earth safely.
In response, the Soviet media can only respond hastily, saying that Hamm's flight distance is at most suborbital and cannot be regarded as a successful outer space flight. It's like a human walking around the door, not a tourist.
The Soviet Union followed in April 1961, this time sending astronaut Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 and embarking on plans for outer space travel. This time Gagarin was famous in the world as the world's first human to land in space.
Not to be outdone, the United States also launched a plan to land Americans on the moon within 1 month after Gagarin completed its space flight. Astronaut Alan Shepard went into space. But whether he actually went into space is still debated to this day. In terms of time, however, it seems that the United States did lag a short distance behind the Soviet Union.
In 1962, when U.S. President John F. Kennedy was inspired, he said in a speech that human landing in space seemed too ethereal without a complete goal and plan. So the U.S. decided to make a new breakthrough in spacewalking, and they targeted the landing on the moon.
It wasn't until American astronaut Neil Armstrong flew Apollo 11 and completed the first human mission to the moon, a new chapter in international history about the moon landing was also opened. And what americans say: "One small step for the individual, one big step for mankind" has also become a very classic saying in global history textbooks.
But when Hamm came back after a space tour, was it really unaffected at all?
In fact, when he was found, Hamm did not look any different from usual. Its mood looks very excited, and the two fruits in its hands also show that its mood is very happy.
After being taken back to the United States, Hamm was also labeled a hero and a star. Although it completed the mission to land in space, it continued to be kept in the zoo. But according to the average lifespan of the average chimpanzee of 40 years, Hamm's lifespan is relatively short, because it only lived for 25 years.
According to the treatment that Hamm can get, it not only has a dedicated dietitian, but also a medical team that can treat the chimpanzee's various diseases. But unfortunately, Hamm did not even reach the average level of lifespan. It can be seen that as primates, chimpanzees landed on the moon and caused some physical changes that cannot be detected by the human eye.
According to this phenomenon, people have also found a truth: as of that time, the international level of science and technology, the space environment is actually not suitable for the exploration of life, only when human beings are more and more prepared, the mysteries of space are eligible for exploration.