And Now For Something Completely Different
A fight over radioactive space monkeys.
I want one.
Pat Flannery probably does, too, but only if it’s cute and personality filled.
Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!
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Author
Rand Simberg: just a recovering aerospace engineer.
November 4th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Radioactive space moneys – an alternate energy source?
November 4th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I thought you weren’t going to get a pet. If you insist on getting a pet, I recommend a variety lacking thumbs — it really makes life easier, trust me.
November 4th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
See, they ARE trying to genetically engineer monkeys with human intelligence to carry out missions in deep space. Having that nifty tail to hold onto something in zero g makes scratching your butt all the easier.
November 4th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I’m trying to figure out why they want to do it this way. I mean, astronauts are not going to get injected with radioisotopes as a consequence of going to space. Furthermore, they’re going to do one injection, then watch as the radioactivity decays over four years. WTF? How is this like steady exposure to radiation in orbit? Why not stick the monkeys in front of an X-ray machine twice a day for four years? Bonus: they can explain they’re actually trying to help the monks, since everyone knows X-rays and CAT scans are good while radiation is bad.
I am going to guess what they’re interested in is the effect of cosmic rays creating tiny traces of radionuclides inside people, which continue to decay even after returning from orbit. It’s not possible to generate radiation as high-energy as cosmic rays artificially, so they simulate the process by simply injecting the radionuclides to begin with.
It’s still a funny experiment, I would have thought most of the damage from a cosmic ray was prompt, delivered in the initial energy burst, and very little of it went into creating new radionuclides.
But maybe I am totally misunderstanding what they’re trying to do. Maybe it’s just that someone figured any proposal with the phrases “NASA”, “monkeys” and “radiation” in the title was bound to seem important. But in that case, they forgot to add “nanotech” and the adjective “green.”
November 4th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
So the Committee of Responsible Animal Physicians (or whatever they called themselves) has found a kind of “legal action” to file that “isn’t quite a lawsuit.” That’s scarier than radioactive monkeys, if you ask me…
November 4th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
It appears to be animal week at Transterrestrial. Tune in tomorrow to find out if the radioactive monkeys and the H1N1-infected cats can join forces with the terrorist-fighting bears.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Beats zombie week. I’m all zombied out.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
It’s always animal week, considering I feel frequently bugged by Jim, who’s barking mad, some other Transterrans are catty or dogmatic, and I believe Rand started the whole thing as a lark.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Well that’s just ducky.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:58 am
I’m reporting this fishy site to the White House again…
November 5th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I wonder if this is how the apes became smart enough to take over the world?
Let me be the first to say:”Get your stinking paws off me you dammned dirty ape!”