Posted on 02/03/2015 2:12:51 PM PST by BenLurkin
Since my previous post was about dogs, its time to give equal time to the cats … although I’m guessing the cat lovers of the world won’t have a great reaction to this one. Here’s some footage from some the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories which include a test of the effects of weightlessness on cats in a C-131 “vomit comet” that simulates weightlessness. Best I can tell, this research was done in 1947. Think of it in the same vein as all those weird tests the early astronauts had to endure.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
No it refers to the nausea most people get during weightlessness.
Don’t know if cats get nauseated when weightless, though.
Amen to that. We’ve got eight of the little buggers.Ten front claws apiece rounds out to eighty little switchblade knives.
Years ago I read a Si-Fi short story about cats and dogs in a bubble/balloon type space station. The cats did well.
Well, I’m thinking mine would do well on the Navy experiments, too. Husband can’t take a leak or a shower, without cats wanting to “help”. And since they learned that water comes out of the bathtub spigot, one of them is always doing acrobatics on it, trying to turn it on; while the other waits in the tub for the prize.
My cats are soaking wet half the time ;-)
-JT
+1
Should have put some tape on their paws too
My morning routine involves watering our kitties as I get ready for the day. One wants to drink out of the tap. One wants to drink out of the bowl. Two others want to drink out of a specially provided cup. At least it gives me something to do while I brush my teeth.
I had one, years ago, who always wanted to drink water out of my glass. I got used to it, germs be damned.
(The same one would delight in tipping over a glass of water, and staring intently at the wonderful mess he had made!)
We are just their slaves.
-JT
Brilliant!
(I think.............)
-JT
Absolutely love that.
(Dang, I have to learn that HTML *stuff* :-)
-JT
Cutely!
The "Vomit Comet" was a nickname given to a Boeing 707 that was used by NASA to simulate weightlessness for astronauts. The aircraft would carry the astronauts aloft and fly a series of parabolic curves (climb, then push over at a rate that equals gravity so that the net result is weightlessness for the occupants).
They could sustain this condition for about 30 seconds, then had to enter another climb and then another push over for another 30 seconds weightlessness.
They'd do this over and over again. A person can usually handle one or two cycles, but repetitiveness usually brought their breakfast back up - which gave rise to the quip, "eat bananas for breakfast because they taste the same coming up and they did going down".
Interesting tidbit: Much of the movie Apollo 13 was shot inside a similar aircraft (if not the original) to make the weightless space scenes more authentic. Tom Hanks hated it - shooting that much in 30 second segments.
Someone in the comments said it was 1949.
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