Cats in space

Is the automated/unpiloted rendezvous-capable craft really going to be
automated/unpiloted?

Here we see Fluffy on her first round of vomit comet training as a member
of the class dubbed "the Feline Nine".

http://216.40.242.213/mirror/cat.mov

She seems to have forgotten that she needs _gravity_ to hit on all fours.

--
"All over, people changing their votes,
along with their overcoats;
if Adolf Hitler flew in today,
they'd send a limousine anyway!" --the clash.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

Mike Flugennock wrote:

Here we see Fluffy on her first round of vomit comet training as a member
of the class dubbed "the Feline Nine".

http://216.40.242.213/mirror/cat.mov

She seems to have forgotten that she needs _gravity_ to hit on all fours.


That's hilarious! But to me, it looks like a real good way to get
severely bitten and scratched by a completely freaked-out cat.

Pat

Mike Flugennock wrote:
Here we see Fluffy on her first round of vomit comet training as a member
of the class dubbed "the Feline Nine".

This seems kind of mean. Unless somebody can put the video in context
for us and assure us the cat is playing acrobatically, and not flailing
about in sheer, disoriented terror. Because that's sure what it looks like.

Daniel wrote:

This seems kind of mean. Unless somebody can put the video in context
for us and assure us the cat is playing acrobatically, and not flailing
about in sheer, disoriented terror. Because that's sure what it looks
like.

Lucky effin cat

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 04:50:14 +0000, Daniel wrote:

This seems kind of mean. Unless somebody can put the video in context
for us and assure us the cat is playing acrobatically, and not flailing
about in sheer, disoriented terror. Because that's sure what it looks
like.

Yes, the cat was "uncomfortable". Unfortunately, it was for science...

All experiments so far with cats in micro-g have resulted in miserable
cats. The cat has always been perceived by writers and cat fans as the
perfect spacegoing domestic animal, but the same nervous system that gives
them their grace is hardwired for 1 gee of pull. If the cat is subjected
to freefall that nervous systenm assumes it _is_ falling and the "land
on feet" reflex kicks in... and keeps on going as long as the freefall
lasts.

And the cat, unable to lock on to the ground it's "falling" towards,
gets very unhappy indeed.

Unfortunately finding out if the cat can ever get used to it would require
dedicating the cat to a full-up orbital mission... regardless of whether
the cat ever adapts or not.

--
Chuck Stewart
"Anime-style catgirls: Threat? Menace? Or just studying algebra?"

Daniel wrote:


This seems kind of mean. Unless somebody can put the video in context
for us and assure us the cat is playing acrobatically, and not
flailing about in sheer, disoriented terror. Because that's sure what
it looks like.


Tossing it at the wall twice looked like a bit much.
Who was the woman in the blue suit, by the way? She looked completely at
home maneuvering in zero G.

Pat

Chuck Stewart wrote:

Yes, the cat was "uncomfortable". Unfortunately, it was for science...

All experiments so far with cats in micro-g have resulted in miserable
cats.


It gets into a really severe roll toward the end of the video. It looks
like it's going to be pretty dizzy by the time this is all over.
I always wondered how a bird would handle zero G, at least it would be
used to moving in three dimensions.
I wonder if the weightlessness would make it think it is in a terminal
dive and cause it to frantically beat its wings in an attempt to pull
out of the dive before it hits the "ground".
Of course we could test a small yellow canary and a puddy cat at the
same time.
Alternatively, a black puddy cat with a white stripe painted on its
back, and a amorous skunk. :-)

Pat

Coincidentally, I recently finished reading Arthur C. Clarke's collection of
short stories, _The Nine Billion Names of God_, and one of them (called
"Who's There?") touches on the subject of keeping a cat on a space station.
The narrator of the story had to go outside on a space walk and nearly
scared himself to death when he felt something soft and warm on the back of
his neck. Turned out the space station's cat had had kittens inside his
space suit while it was stored in his locker.

Recently on an episode of _America's Home Videos_ they showed the interior
of a small private plane, during which the pilot was doing parabolas and you
could plainly see his confused dog floating around in the back of the cabin.

An accidental experiment in cat free-fall trajectory was reported by a _Fort
Worth Star-Telegram_ columnist many years ago. Seems a man was hired to
erect and paint a flagpole for a school. He always took his cat everywhere
he went. So, while the cat was dozing on the end of a two-by-six board that
was lying on the ground, the flagpole accidentally got away from the man, it
fell over and landed on the other end of that board. There was a moderate
mound of dirt underneath the board, so when the 60-foot-tall flagpole
crashed onto it, it launched that unsuspecting cat into sub-orbital flight.
"He sailed about 70 feet into the air, flew over the power lines, across
Route 3, and landed in the top of a magnolia tree. He clawed about seven
bushels of leaves off it on the way down."

In article , Daniel
wrote:

Mike Flugennock wrote:
Here we see Fluffy on her first round of vomit comet training as a member
of the class dubbed "the Feline Nine".

This seems kind of mean. Unless somebody can put the video in context
for us and assure us the cat is playing acrobatically, and not flailing
about in sheer, disoriented terror. Because that's sure what it looks like.

The context, I would assume, is a NASA vomit comet, judging from the
jumpsuits being worn by the human trainees in the clip, though I honestly
don't know why the cat was brought up with them.

The one problem is that there's no sound on this clip, so we can't really
tell if the cat is enjoying it, or just dealing with it, or really is
scared out of her wits. It looks like she's responding instinctively, of
course; she knows she's in the air, and has to twist her feet downwards,
except she can't figure out where "down" is.

--
"All over, people changing their votes,
along with their overcoats;
if Adolf Hitler flew in today,
they'd send a limousine anyway!" --the clash.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

Mary Shafer & Alan Erskine In Space Having Sex With Cats On The
Way Too The Moon.