Space Mice from Riders To The Stars

[b4gm4n]

Did they use German mice i wonder? ;)

[BillThompson1955]

@b4gm4n Naw, they were Maustrians.

[michaeljayklein]

This was Richard Carlson's first film as a director (with some assistance from Herbert L. Strock when they were running behind schedule). It was an Ivan Tors production. Tors and Carlson worked together often in TV and movies, both having an interest in producing educational entertainments. I stumbled across the original paperback version of the film some years ago at a garage sale! A good mix of hokum and scientific fact (at least as they understood it back then!)

[mutatron]

Check out the cute computer face at 3:25.

[scotpens]

"How many g's did they take?"

"Thirteen, but they never lost consciousness."

How do they know the mice never lost consciousness? Did the mice radio back, "Hey, we never blacked out, and we're feeling just fine and dandy"? How much consciousness does a mouse have, anyway?

That's definitely documentary footage of early space experiments with animals. And some of the rocket construction sequence looks like German footage of V2's being built.

[BillThompson1955]

They know the mice never lost consciousness because the film showed them moving around.

You're right, it's genuine documentary footage. It's from an Aerobee flight at Holloman on May 21, 1952. The rocket launch before the mice footage is an Aerobee.

[scotpens]

Well, yes, I was being a bit facetious about the mice. The little furry suckers probably thought they'd been given a new experimental drug or something.

"Hey, man, I'm like . . . FLOATING! Boy, I am so wasted!"

[BillThompson1955]

"I'm so high!" "What a blast, dood!"

It turns out that the recovered payload section from that Aerobee, and the preserved bodies of the two mice, are on display at the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson.

The V2 construction footage is probably from White Sands. The US collected parts for about a hundred of them after the war and brought them home for experiments.