Earlier this month, I was researching how snakes react in microgravity for a Rescue Sisters story I'm writing, "Snakes on a Spaceship." Funny: NASA has apparently not done research in this important field of biology. Must still be getting contracts for the best snake tank.
Apparently, however, they did wonder about cats in space...
Dogs apparently handle zero g better, emotionally, anyway.
Here's a reason to work at USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/guest/2004-11-12-kridler-fla-today_x.htm
"Hi, I'd like to get more information about the cat flipping going on in the vomit comet..."
And since, as USA Today put it, record-keeping was not as good in the 80s as it is now, and since NASA can't take the political heat for spinning more cats in space, we're going to use robots: http://www.collegecentral.com/Article.cfm?CatID=CNS&ArticleID=2712
Other cat funnies:
http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200108/zero-gravity.cfm
http://www.clydesight.com/space.html
A UFO is stranded on earth and impounded by the US government. Its pilot, a cat with a collar that has special powers, including the ability to allow the cat to communicate with humans, has eluded the authorities and needs the help of a man named Frank in order to reclaim and repair his ship to get back home. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077305/
"Snakes on a Spaceship" will be appearing in Infinite Space, Infinite God II by Twilight Times Books. (If you're an SF writer, there's still time to submit your story! go to www.isigsf.com for details.)
1 comment:
There's also a Jerry Pournelle anecdote about some F-106 pilots at some Fifties/Sixties AFB with too much time on their hands trying to find out how cats balance in Zero-G...
One of the pilots took one of the base cats up in a 106 on his lap, with cameras rigged and all; flew a Zero-G parabola and held up and released the meow-meow.
Let's just say the cat had claws long enough to penetrate the flight suit, G-suit, and the pilot (who managed not to crash the 106).
Upon returning to base, the cat did not detach until the canopy opened, then shot out of the cockpit quantumed into the crawl space under the building where they'd found him, and never came out again.
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