Purpose:  From the beginnings of rocket travel, man has been curious as to the effects of high altitudes on living creatures, and the ability of living organisms to survive a rocket launch and landing.  The week, Scientific AmeriKen will send several insect aeronauts into the high altitudes to see what effects it will have upon their lives.

Hypothesis:  It is the hypothesis of this experiment that these organisms will survive the rocket expedition and will return safely to the ground. This hypothesis is based on the belief that because rocket travel has been relatively safe for many of the explorations into the upper atmospheres and beyond, that simple organisms will be able to survive.
 

Equipment:  Used in this experiment was a Starwars Episode I Pod Racer Rocket (pictured at Right) plus kit for launching rocket, a cricket, 4 rollie-poli bugs (sal bugs), an earwig (pincher bug), scotch tape, plastic bag (shuttle crew pod), pen and paper. Procedure:  Rocket comes equipped with instructions as to use. Other  procedures basically include finding bugs, placing them into the

"shuttle crew pod" and sticking them inside the rocket or taping them to the outside. After shuttle lands, examine crew to determine whether any casulties have occured.

Results:
 

Launch Number	Number of Aeronauts Departed	Results
Launch #1	1 Cricket	Cricket returned to surface, alive, and was released
Launch #2	1 Earwig, 4 sal-bugs Pod was  tied to the outside of the shuttle.	All Aeronauts survived the launch, except for one sal-bug, which was believed dead prior to launch.
Launch #3	1 Earwig, 3 living sal bugs,  1 deceased, positioned inside.	two Aeronauts survived, those being two sal-bugs. Earwig was KIA, upon arrival to the rocket landing site, it was apparant the Earwig recieved heavy body damage, although this was believed to be a result of a failure in the shuttle parachute deployment system and not because of altitude.

Conclusions:  It appears from the results that the survival rate among individuals over the three trips is roughly 77.8%. This equates to 3 surviving aeronauts for every 4 that take off in the shuttle. It is the belief of Scientific AmeriKen that these rates are not bad and the hypothesis is proven correct that rocket travel is relatively safe. Perhaps future experimentation on this topic will better be served if before launches take place, all aeronauts are examined to determine if they are living and also that the rocket safety systems are checked to make sure that parachute systems are good to go.

If you would like a printable version of this experiment click here
The song currently playing is "Rocket" by Smashing Pumpkins and was found on Smashing Pumpkins Midi Page