Space Monkey Business

“The beauty of this is that we can assess at different time points after exposure, so not only do we get a sense of rather immediate effects, but then we can look again at longer time points,” Bergman told Klotz. “That kind of information just hasn’t been available.”

But this statement holds little merit considering that monkeys are biologically different enough from humans that the results of these experiments cannot be readily correlated between the species other than that radiation will kill both after extremely painful tumors and other cancers. Effects of massive radiation exposure have been well documented in studies going back to the early 1950s.

An Italian experiment on the International Space Station began last summer and is described on the NASA Web site as “Anomalous Long Term Effects in Astronauts’ Central Nervous System,” or ALTEA. According to a NASA Web site page, ALTEA “will be able to “discriminate the type of particles, to measure their trajectories and the delivered energies. This will provide in-depth information on the radiation experienced and its impact on the nervous systems and visual perception. ALTEA will also develop new risk parameters and possible countermeasures aimed at the functional central nervous system risks.”

“The neurophysiologic effects of cosmic radiation in long-term space travel have never been explored with the depth of the ALTEA experiment,” reads the ALTEA page on the NASA site. “Data collected will help quantify risks to astronauts on future long distance space missions and propose optimized countermeasures.”

Presumably, the folks at NASA are aware of this experiment, which is looking for the very same answers that the squirrel monkey study ostensibly is. But there is a major difference between the Italian and American experiments: the Italians are studying the actual animals that tests are meant for — humans, not monkeys.

If the Constellation program is discontinued, inhumane primate experiments and the exorbitant and expensive dreams of human space conquest may disappear into a stellar black hole. It could be one small step for monkeys, one giant leap for robots.

Next week: “We Robot” finds that JPL, home of America’s greatest robotic explorations of the heavens, isn’t sold on deep-sixing the manned space program.

Contact the author, Michael Collins, at EnviroReporter.com.

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