From Junglenaut to Chimponaut
Jungle aaa on the esthetics of genetic transformation
On November 3 1957, a satellite carrying a canis familiaris named Laika was launched by the USSR. For about a week, biological data was being received which showed how the dog was adapting to the conditions of zero gravity. Laika was not the first animal to be put into a rocket for acceleration and altitude experiments. Numerous mice and non-human primates had explored sub-orbital space in V2 rockets. But Laika was the first living creature ever to break the boundary of the atmosphere and, in this way, to become the original, and exemplary astronaut.
It would take until 1961 before humans, in the person of Yuri Gagarin, could follow in these giant footsteps. Because reentry of the Sputnik II was not possible, Laika was put to sleep and the satellite remained in orbit for another 162 days before it fell back into the atmosphere. But the fact of being the first earthling to have ventured into space earned Laika the posthumous fame she deserved. Stamps were issued containing pictures of the dog and hymns were written in remembrance of her epic adventure.
Of course, Russian and American Space Agency’s experiments with animals in space was no neutral scientific research intended to increase our knowledge of how biological processes are affected by microgravity. These life sciences have to be seen in the light of the space race declared by Kennedy in 1961 and its goal to put a first man on the moon. The early animal explorers paved the way for humans to venture into space. They have been subjected to a great number of tests used to evaluate an assortment of flight issues that have included propellant systems, radiation exposure, life support systems, and recovery procedures. And it goes without saying that a lot of these early explorers have given their lives for humans to follow into their initial footsteps. Currently, animals often accompany astronauts on space shuttle flights, and they are being used to study the effects of weightlessness. At least two ideas are behind the enlisting of animals in the services of NASA, ESA and the Russian space program.
The first, of course being the realization that in the absence of animal models, the colonization of space would have progressed much more slowly and with far greater human risk. Deformations to the human constitution because of experimentation and even deaths, such as the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, have always delayed scientific progress. No animal liberation group has ever succeeded where the loss of human lives has.
The second reason for the use of animals to develop models for human space exploration is the idea that animals are, in a way, very much like us. Mammals, and especially primates such as chimpanzees, served particularly well as models for humanoid astronauts because of their proximity on the evolutionary ladder. So, it is believed that certain physiological changes in zero-g, as seen in the animal test-subjects, may produce useful experimental models for studies of Earth-based humanoid diseases such as osteoporosis, immune dysfunction, vestibular disorders, wound healing impairment, anemia, and aging.
Jungle AAA deplores the way the military and corporate space agencies are treating the heritage of explorers such as Laika and the chimpanzee Ham, and all the animals that followed in their footsteps. It opposes the way they are seen as an easy means to scientific progress and stepping stones to human success in space. Jungle AAA does not just advocate new stamps to be issued, new hymns to be written, monuments to be erected. Jungle AAA calls for the animal model for the future junglenaut. Human models are outdated. Human individuality is a concept invented and developed by multinational corporations to increase their profit.
Jungle AAA has no special attachment to the humanoid individual. Therefore it proposes to replace the human ideal type with the animal one. In order to really leave earth’s gravitational pull behind, we have to give up our humanity. And to achieve this goal we have to follow where the animals have gone before; we have to subject our bodies to the tests we are inflicting upon ourselves. Not inhibited by a backward fear of death, the junglenaut will perform experiments which might cost it its life, but which it will prefer over the living death in earth’s poisoning atmosphere. By using Ham as a model, the junglenaut will be in constant transformation. Experimenting with animal and human characteristics, it will disrupt both. And only then will the junglenaut have become a true chimponaut.
Luther Blissett
