Experimental Animal Decompressions to a Near-Vacuum Environment [1965] [pdf]

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/project-exodus-...

> 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