Psychology of Space Exploration

Behavioral Health

One of the main questions was whether the test animals could keep their wits
about them in the sense that they could do what they had been taught to do dur-
ing the presumably terrifying rocket rides. Able and Baker were encased in casts
to protect them against gravitational changes, but one finger and one toe were
exposed so that, after a warning light turned on, the finger could be used to press
a lever to avoid a shock to the toe. All the way up and all the way down, they
pressed the lever on cue. Later, as a part of the Mercury pretest program, the chim-
panzees Ham and Enos received much more elaborate and sophisticated training
than did their predecessors.^5 They flew in special couches within Mercury capsules;
Ham’s flight was suborbital, but Enos completed four orbits. Although acceleration
and deceleration forces in excess of 7 g’s had an immediate effect on the chimpan-
zees’ performance, once these forces diminished, their performance bounced back
to preflight levels. Microgravity did not interfere with visual processes (monitor-
ing the lights), nor did it interfere with eating and drinking. Not only did they per-
form their assigned tasks in space, but the two chimpanzees also returned to Earth
in good health and with their sharply honed skills intact.^6 Looking back at an epi-
sode from this era, Joseph Brady recounted:

On the recovery ship, after the helicopter had dropped the cap-

sule once or twice before obtaining a good connection on one of

these animal pre-test flights—a good reason for practicing before

the human flights—the hatch was opened on the flight deck and

the chimp came out sputtering and thrashing about. An admi-

ral standing on the deck with several of us said something like “If

that chimp could only talk”, in response to which I felt required

to observe that the best thing that ever happened to us was that

the chimp could not talk or the space program might have come

to an abrupt end right on the spot.^7

5. F. H. Rholes, Jr., M. E. Grunzke, and H. H. Reynolds, “Chimpanzee Performance During
   the Ballistic and Orbital Project Mercury Flights,” Journal of Comparative and Physiological
   Psychology 86, no. 1 (1963): 2–10.


6. J. V. Brady, “Behavioral Health: The Propaedeutic Requirement,” Aviation, Space, and
   Environmental Medicine 76, no. 6, sect. II (June 2005): B13–B24.


7. Anon., “ Journal Interview 64”: 1811.