Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hi brain Stuff.
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here on February seven, the humble fruit
Speaker 1: fly boldly went where no Earth creature had gone before,
Speaker 1: into space, of all things. The historic trip was made
Speaker 1: on a rocket originally designed by Nazis Easy. Towards the
Speaker 1: end of World War Two, American soldiers seized a number
Speaker 1: of German V two ballistic missiles, along with enough component
Speaker 1: pieces to fill three hundred train cars. The V twos
Speaker 1: were high tech, long range weapons that could fly at
Speaker 1: a top speed of thirty five hundred miles per hour
Speaker 1: that's about fifty six hundred kilometers per hour and hit
Speaker 1: targets standing as far as two hundred miles that's three
Speaker 1: kilometers away. Uncle Sam's military realized that V two's had
Speaker 1: great scientific potential. In ninety six, the Armed Forces began
Speaker 1: test firing them at the White Sands Missile Range in
Speaker 1: New Mexico. Even back then, there was an interest in
Speaker 1: the possibility of putting a man in outer space some day,
Speaker 1: but first some major technical questions needed answering. For starters,
Speaker 1: scientists wondered if exposure to cosmic radiation would harm potential
Speaker 1: future astronauts, So, starting in nineteen forty six, the military
Speaker 1: launched a series of biological samples into space on V
Speaker 1: two rockets. Seeds from corn rye and other plants were
Speaker 1: sent skyward, often reaching heights of eighty miles that's a
Speaker 1: hundred thirty kilometers or more above the ground. Most, but
Speaker 1: not all, of these were recovered post launch and thoroughly
Speaker 1: examined by scientists working with the U. S. Navy. According
Speaker 1: to the Office of Naval Research, the White Sands Missile
Speaker 1: Range didn't manage to send animals into space until ninety seven.
Speaker 1: On February twenty that year, a V two loaded with
Speaker 1: fruit flies traveled sixty seven miles that's a hundred nine
Speaker 1: kilometers up into the atmosphere. NASA currently recognizes the altitude
Speaker 1: of sixty six miles or a hundred kilometers as the
Speaker 1: point where space officially begins. Therefore, those bugs are considered
Speaker 1: the first animals to ever visit the final frontier. But
Speaker 1: why were fruit flies chosen for this cosmic journey? Genetically,
Speaker 1: their species has way more in common with Homo sapiens
Speaker 1: than you might think. Around of all of the disease
Speaker 1: causing genes present in humans, have analogs in the fruit
Speaker 1: flies genetic code. Studying fruit flies can therefore teach us
Speaker 1: a lot about our own genetic makeup, which is a
Speaker 1: big reason the insects are so popular among biological researchers.
Speaker 1: It's also the reason that the White Sands missile range
Speaker 1: wanted to see what would happen to them in outer space.
Speaker 1: On the V two's descent back to Earth, a capsule
Speaker 1: containing the fruit flies broke away, and a parachute slowly
Speaker 1: lowered it down onto New Mexican soil. The scientists were
Speaker 1: relieved to see that the fruit flies were still alive, and,
Speaker 1: perhaps more importantly, that the cosmic radiation had had no
Speaker 1: genetic effect on them. In other words, the insects had
Speaker 1: not been mutated in space. That encouraged biologists to launch
Speaker 1: other animals on V two excursions. By the time NASA
Speaker 1: was founded in ninety eight, America had sent numerous hamsters, mice,
Speaker 1: and monkeys into space, though sadly many of them did
Speaker 1: not make it back alive. However, this research and their
Speaker 1: sacrifice has paved the way to the amazing exploration being
Speaker 1: done today. Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler clang Her. More on this and lots
Speaker 1: of other genetically similar topics, visit our home planet, how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com.