Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today I've got another
Speaker 1: classic episode for you. This one concerns the strange story
Speaker 1: of why and how fruit flies became the very first
Speaker 1: earthly animal to visit outer space. Hi brain Stuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: vogel Bomb. Here On February, the humble fruit fly boldly
Speaker 1: went where no earth creature had gone before, into space.
Speaker 1: Of all things. The historic trip was made on a
Speaker 1: rocket originally designed by Nazis Easy. Towards the end of
Speaker 1: World War Two, American soldiers seized a number of German
Speaker 1: V two ballistic missiles, along with enough component pieces to
Speaker 1: fill three hundred train cars. The V twos were high tech,
Speaker 1: long range weapons that could fly at a top speed
Speaker 1: of thirty five hundred miles per hour that's about fifty
Speaker 1: six hundred kilometers per hour and hit targets standing as
Speaker 1: far as two hundred miles that's three and twenty kilometers away.
Speaker 1: Uncle Sam's military realized that V two's had great scientific potential.
Speaker 1: In nineteen forty six, the Armed Forces began test firing
Speaker 1: them at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Speaker 1: Even Back then, there was an interest in the possibility
Speaker 1: of putting a man in outer space someday, but first
Speaker 1: some major technical questions needed answering. For starters, scientists wondered
Speaker 1: if exposure to cosmic radiation would harm potential future astronauts, so,
Speaker 1: starting in nineteen forty six, the military launched a series
Speaker 1: of biological samples into space on V two rockets. Seeds
Speaker 1: from corn rye and other plants were sent skyward, often
Speaker 1: reaching heights of eighty miles that's a hundred thirty kilometers
Speaker 1: or more above the ground. Most, but not all, of
Speaker 1: these were recovered post launch and thoroughly examined by scientists
Speaker 1: working with the U. S. Navy. According to the Office
Speaker 1: of Naval Research, the White Sands Missile Range didn't manage
Speaker 1: to send animals into space until ninety seven. On February
Speaker 1: twenty that year, a V two loaded with fruit flies
Speaker 1: traveled sixty seven miles that's a hundred nine kilometers up
Speaker 1: into the atmosphe here. NASA currently recognizes the altitude of
Speaker 1: sixty six miles or a hundred kilometers as the point
Speaker 1: where space officially begins. Therefore, those bugs are considered the
Speaker 1: first animals to ever visit the Final Frontier. But why
Speaker 1: were fruit flies chosen for this cosmic journey? Genetically, their
Speaker 1: species has way more in common with Homo sapiens than
Speaker 1: you might think. Around sev 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 America had sent numerous hamsters, mice, and
Speaker 1: monkeys into space, though sadly many of them did not
Speaker 1: make it back alive. However, this research and their sacrifice
Speaker 1: has paved the way to the amazing exploration being done today.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article why fruit flies
Speaker 1: were the first animals in space on how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com, written by Mark Vancini. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: off I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang. Four
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.