PETAnauts Are Persistent

"NASA: Take a Giant Leap for Mankind. Stop Torturing Monkeys"

You gotta hand it to 'em - that's not half bad.

I am sure these tests have been performed many many times- in various medical and flight institutions in varied countries. Not to mention 60+ years of Military Nuclear bomb/fallout and Military/Civilian Reactor exposure testing.

Lets find and use those records first.

And -

One would hope that these tests are really even necessary right now. I mean we really better be going to Mars the slow way if we are exposing these creatures to this stuff. (I thought the new plan was to go the faster way (vasimr, etc?))

We already know Cosmic Rays/background radiation are each really bad. We already know how to shield from both (Station experience). Lets correlate how long we leave astronauts on station with the amount of shielding up there- and lets, well add more magnetic and/or physical shielding to compensate.

http://www.physorg.com/news145004546.html

"By recreating in miniature a tiny piece of the Solar Wind, scientists working in the laboratory were able to confirm that a small "hole" in the Solar Wind is all that would be needed to keep the astronauts safe on their journey to our nearest neighbours."

Lets do more of this testing- and lets leave the monkeys alone- at least for a little while.

Nasa needs any sort of bad PR right now like a hole in the head.

How did this even survive the Constellation Cancellation?

The main problem I have with PETA is that you never know if they are lying. In order to protect animals most of them are more than happy to lie for their cause. As such even if NASA changed the proposed experiment to low radiation doses over a long period of time I doubt that PETA would suddenly accept it. Personally if the proposed experiment was useful I would support it. Call me old fashioned but I consider human life sacred. Of course people who think that human life is no different than animal life will never agree to animal experiments.

I have no desire to see animal experiments carried out unless they are useful but when it comes to matters like this PETA is literally the least reliable source on the planet. The fact that the ESA agrees with PETA is interesting but they are not that reliable of a source either. The ESA has a blanket ban on primate experiments which in my opinion indicates that it was done for emotional reasons and not scientific reasons. If an objective source with no ideological reasons against animal experimentation said this proposed experiment was useless it would carry far more weight.

Considering the Obama space policy though there isn't any need to rush this sort of test now. We are at least 15 years away from having an American spacecraft constructed that could take humans outside of Earth orbit. That alone could be an argument for NASA reviewing this test though so far I have yet to see any source I would consider objective speak out against this proposed experiment.

I haven't studied the test -- and don't consider myself qualified to determine it's scientific merit anyway. However, I suspect that part of the issue is dollars.

Spacecraft can be designed that isolate the human compartments from radiation by covering them with a "cocoon" of water. However, launching water into space to use it as shielding costs money.

I wasn't thrilled with PETA's inaccurate description of their disruption of the NSS conference in Chicago. On the other hand, I'm likewise less than thrilled about subjecting monkeys to high levels of radiation to see what it does to them.

I do note that we're not sending humans to Mars for a long time...

You know . . . just a thought! We will have enough engineers out of work with the 'new' NASA, why don't we hire them for these studies?!

It really just all makes me quite sick! Does anyone act responsibly anymore?

Oh, and if PETA is lying to protect the lives of animals, the more power to them. About time a lie is used for good.

Just a thought. Don't we have radiation exposure data from the medical industry on patients that undergo cancer radiation therapy? If not, perhaps this test data could help that industry?

PETA seems to only care when one of the fuzzy woodland creatures is tested on. Expose a fish to high doses of chemicals or catch a bunch of blue crab and kill them for a sperm count and no one shows up at NOAA?

Drake you have a good point.

Drake how about this scientist:
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2009/11/street-theater.html#comment-25394

et seq
with especial reference to
http://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/PROFILES/ProfileDetails.aspx?Person=JB32

Further to this I understand that the radiation is to be administered by injection? How does this simulate the real problem: GCRs. However I have yet to see the actual proposed methodology ANYWHERE! If anyone can oblige.

If that is not enough how about the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)
http://www.pcrm.org/news/release091105.html

I would oppose this experiment primarily as it is BAD SCIENCE as well as a waste of your Tax Dollars.

1) The guy you point to at Harvard is a shrink, not a physiologist. The question here is physiological, as I understand it.

2) PCRM: I was under the impression that it received millions from PETA; he who pays the piper calls the tune.

I think PETA members should be able to volunteer as replacements for the monkeys.

June: Radiation therapy for cancer treatment is done with gamma rays, electrons, and protons. Although I have not seen the monkey experiment proposal details, I expect they plan to irradiate the monkeys with beams of heavy nuclei at Brookhaven National Lab, otherwise they would not need those facilities. The difference is that the medical radiation is designed to distribute the effects of the dosage over the volume of the targeted area, e.g. a malignant tumor. But in space there are also small fluxes of the heavy cosmic ray nuclei up through iron that produce much more localized damage at small scales of cells and DNA. Since the heavy nuclei beams are not used for medical treatment, there would be no general value in application of the NASA experiment data beyond the intended usage to understand potential effects on humans in space. Since the lightly ionizing particles used for therapy also strongly dominate the total fluxes and dosages in space, it would be more useful first to do intensive research on radiation treatment histories with voluntary consent of former patients for application to the space problem. It is a huge stretch to assume that only the heavy nuclei will be the main problem.

What are they complaining about?

Apes will be experimenting on us when
Ceasar leads the uprising.

As a member of the United Lab Animal Workers Union, I am incensed that PETA is trying to take away my job! Especially during these difficult economic times. Hey PETA! Get a life!

Besides, what are my options? Being ripped to pieces by a merciless carnivore? Wasting away in old age in a forgotten jungle? Dying of some pestilence no vet has ever heard of? Given those choices, I consider it a great honor to give my life to science.

Just think, even though I only have the I.Q. of ... well, a monkey ... I am able to help advance the knowledge and domain of the Master Species. Me and the other “fry boys” in the rad lab love our work. We have a life. The PETA crowd needs us to justify theirs.

The guy I point to at Harvard is the lead 'scientist' for the experiment. Read my previous comments! There I set out a methodology thay even PETA would approve of and produce a result with MEANING.

The billboard is up on the Gulf Freeway. I saw it last night as I returned from downtown. There's a NASA "meatball" that says NASTY instead, but the wording is as stated.

Unlurked and in fact creating account only for answer to it.

"Oh, and if PETA is lying to protect the lives of animals, the more power to them. About time a lie is used for good."
Reality is optional, eh? Why don't you become lawyer, politician, conman, creationist or other scum.

I find stance like cited as very abhorrent.