Behavior Analysis in the Space Age

Abstract

Introduction The year 2006 marks the 50th anniversary of the earliest space flight research initiatives with living organisms and the first behavior analysis laboratory invitation to participate in the animal pretest flight of the United States space program. There was, at this early date, a rumor abroad that the Soviet Union was planning to initiate the Russian Sputnik spaceflight program by launching a dog and the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency was to prepare a 'one-ups-manship' response with a monkey. And indeed, the Russian Sputnik II experiment with the dog Laika in 1956 did provide the first live organism activity data telemetered from space. Failure of the life support system however, made it impossible for the animal to survive more than a few days of the extended 5-month orbital expedition (Dickson, 2001). Early Primate Spaceflight Experiments It was these mid-1950 events that set the occasion for the first two Sidman-avoidance-trained primates, Able and Baker, to initiate the U.S. 'live organism' spaceflight program launched in the nosecone of a rocket (FIGURE 1, APPENDIX). It is of some significance that these early behavioral experiments occurred several years before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) actually came into existence in 1960. This first U.S. suborbital space flight with the monkeys was undertaken on the initiative of Dr. Wernher von Braun of the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency in collaboration with the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Laboratories at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Brady, 1990; 2005). Not only did the two rhesus monkeys endure launch in their insulated restraining couches (FIGURE 2, APPENDIX) and meet the pre-launch avoidance performance training requirements before experiencing the 300+mile trajectory at speeds approximating 10,000 miles per hour, but they survived reentry as well with no compromise of either their behavioral or physiological integrity (FIGURE 3,APPENDIX). Animal Pretest Flights for 'Project Mercury' The early contribution of experimental analysis of behavior to the study of spaceflight effects was perhaps most prominently represented in the NASA formally designated animal pretest flights for Project Mercury. These were the space flight experiments with the chimpanzees Ham and Enos that preceded Astronauts Alan Sheppard and John Glenn in the early 1960's following the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Responsibility for these animal pretest flights was relegated to the military services of the Department of Defense since had few resources available for such an undertaking at this early stage of its existence. At the early planning meetings, it was readily apparent that both the Navy and the Air Force were enthusiastically receptive to the prospect of participating and indeed 'taking charge' of this obviously futuristic initiative. It was agreed however, that behavioral performance measures would be essential in these animal pretest flights and the behavior analysis laboratory at the Army's Walter Reed Medical Center was the only Defense Department facility with an established record of successful animal space flight with the Able and Baker experiments of the late 1950's. Moreover, it was decided, with strong input from the White House, that the organism of choice for these animal pretest flights would be the chimpanzee (FIGURE 4, APPENDIX)--phylogenetic closeness and physical resemblance to the human astronaut successors ruled--and the Walter Reed group through its collaborative interactions with the Institutes for Behavior Research (IBR) at the University of Maryland was one of the few facilities with experienced behavior analysts (Charles Ferster and Jack Findley) in the 'large primate' domain! At a specially constructed chimpanzee training facility provided by the United States Air Force in New Mexico, the soon-to-be-famous 'space chimps' Ham and Enos, spent the better part of a year with behavior analysts from Walter Reed and from the Institutes for Behavior Research of the University of Maryland College Park campus mastering a 'matching-to-sample' performance on a work panel. …