Chimps
may represent the forgotten link in the evolution of human spaceflight.
A
new documentary and a separate upcoming animated film both hearken to the early
days of the U.S. space program, when chimpanzees preceded men into the great
unknown of space.
"Most
people don't really want to acknowledge the chimpanzee missions as particularly
historic," said David Cassidy, director and producer of the
documentary "One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps."
But
when Cassidy dug up footage of the U.S. Air Force's chimp program from the
national archives and other sources, he also found press reels celebrating the
exploits of the space chimps Ham and Enos. Ham paved the way for the first
American to ever fly in space, Alan Shepherd, and Enos flew before just before
John Glenn orbited the Earth.
Film
footage reveals a time when the infant U.S. space program struggled to
successfully launch rockets, let alone humans. That prompted the Air Force to
train a group
of chimps to test the physical effects of launch and spaceflight.
The
documentary includes interviews with Ham's handler, who fondly recalled the
chimp as "a sociable little guy" who adored the people around him. By
contrast, Enos tended to give humans the cold shoulder.
Cassidy
does not skimp on the darker side of the space chimp story. Some scenes that
make for hard viewing include decompression sled tests which caused brain
damage in chimps and human volunteers alike, as noted in the film by an Air
Force physiologist. Chimp training appears to have involved a combination of
rewards, such as juice sips, and punishment through electric shocks.
The
act of chimp spaceflight was no laughing matter, either. Ham's apparent grin of
happiness upon his return to Earth actually signified "the most extreme
fear" through his baring of teeth, according to the film's interview with
renowned biologist Jane Goodall.
However,
Cassidy pointed out that people were just beginning to understand the
intelligence and capabilities of chimpanzees in the 1960s.
"Most
of the humans involved in the program grew very attached to the chimps and
treated them very decently," Cassidy told SPACE.com.
That
did not prevent the Air Force from eventually putting its chimp colony up for
sale after the first successful human spaceflight missions. Although Ham lived
out the rest of his life at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and the North
Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, N.C., most chimps ended up at a biomedical research
facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Twenty
one chimps were eventually rescued by Carole Noon, a biological anthropologist
who sued the Air Force for custody and founded the Center for Captive
Chimpanzee Care in Florida. The center now houses the largest chimp sanctuary
in the world with over 135 residents.
Cassidy
made the documentary after first hearing Noon's story, because he thought the
chimps "need to be treated with a certain level of dignity" after
their contributions to the U.S. space program. He pointed to the Russians, who
unveiled a monument to Laika the space dog this past April.
"It's
kind of fantastical when you think that we treated chimps like humans, trained
them, dressed them up in space suits, and shot them up," Cassidy said.
"You see how it can inspire an animated film."
That
upcoming animated film "Space Chimps" takes a decidedly lighter tone
with Ham III, the future grandson of Ham, and a crew of chimponauts blazing new
trails for humanity by piloting a spacecraft through an inter-dimensional
wormhole. They end up on a planet teeming with alien life and political
intrigue — a mission outcome that scientists can
only dream of.
A
"Space Chimps" video game will also accompany the film's July 18
release, featuring single player and cooperative modes with plenty of simian
acrobatics in colorful alien environments.
Perhaps
chimps may one day play another role in dangerous space exploration, but
they'll face stiff competition from robotic probes. Still,
it's worth remembering that one small step into space that threw the doors open
for human spaceflight.
"One
Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps" was directed and produced by
David Cassidy, and is available at www.spacechimps.com. The "Space Chimps" animated film was produced by
Vanguard Animation/Twentieth Century Fox, and will open in theaters on July 18.
The "Space Chimps" video
game will be released in July on PS2, X360, Wii, and NDS.
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