In 1947, the first living critters to be launched into space were fruit flies—they were sent up with some corn so they’d not be hungry (I don’t know why this amuses me, but every time I read it I laugh; I’m laughing now … hold on … wait … okay I’m done). 106 miles up. The capsule was recovered and the fruit flies weren’t any worse for wear—their future families are now circling your fruit bowl to get away from Grandpa Fruit Fly and his space-travel stories they’ve heard fifty-galleven times.
A year later, they tried a monkey. They think poor Albert may have suffocated before he even left the ground. Dang. 39 miles—not officially space, since the Kármán line (where space begins) is 62 miles.
Albert II, who unfortunate for him had no idea what happened to the preceding Albert, soared in his V2 rocket to 83 miles. The other Alberts (III, IV, V) boarded their rockets and either they died on impact or during the flight. Well, stop naming them all Albert!
It is said that the monkeys were anesthetized for the flight. Hmmm. I wonder. Well, anyway, I’ve often wanted to be anesthetized when flying, haven’t you?
In 1959, monkeys Able and Miss Baker flew to 360 miles, tucked in aboard a Jupiter rocket. Their recovery capsule landed about 1700 miles off range of Cape Canaveral (haw!) but they were found and recovered and became celebrities, perhaps later as spokesmonkeys for various products and services, such as reverse mortgages, life alert, or long-term-care insurance.
Maybe we aren’t going to space, but perhaps you travel for your writing career—book signings, WU Unconferences, events—and/or for vacations, family. Maybe you travel for ideas to use in your writing. I’ve traveled A Lot over the years; most all of the time I travel alone in my car as I’d rather travel two days in my car than fly a few hours in Hell.
With my traveling experience, I offer you my worldly common sense wisdom that you could easily find in a google search but here I am all the same: [Read more…]
