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posted by
cmn32480
on Thursday October 29 2015, @01:57PM
from the in-soviet-russia-mars-monkey's-you dept.
from the in-soviet-russia-mars-monkey's-you dept.
Russian scientists are currently training macaques to solve puzzles and use a joystick for a planned 2017 trip to Mars:
Each day a team, led by Inessa Kozlovskaya, trains the monkeys to control a joystick and hit a target highlighted by a cursor.
When they complete the task successfully they are rewarded with a sip of juice.
Once they have mastered this task the macaques will be trained to solve simple mathematical tasks and puzzles.
At the end of their training the creatures should be capable of completing a daily schedule of tasks on their own.
[...] Macaques typically have a lifespan of around 25 years, so it is hoped there is enough time to train them properly and for them to survive the six-month trip to Mars, added the team.
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Nadia Comaneci, simple perfection.
-- '76 Olympics
(Score: 5, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday October 29 2015, @02:25PM
(Score: 5, Informative) by isostatic on Thursday October 29 2015, @02:59PM
It's the daily mail - which should be warned about in the summary. It's like posting something from the westboro baptist church combined with the onion with a bit of goatse thrown in for good measure.
(Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Thursday October 29 2015, @05:08PM
That, and the fact that no ethical review board would sign off on the use of primates for this sort of thing. There is absolutely nothing that a trained monkey could possibly do in such a situation that would be of value. Macaques have less-developed abstracted reasoning and communication skills than a kindergardener -- and what use would a kindergardener be on such a mission? And how are the macaques supposed to care for themselves, clean up after themselves, and the like, for months at a time? I doubt they'd last a week, and they'd certainly foul any sort of experimental apparatuses they're supposed to be controlling and monitoring.
"Daily Fail," indeed.
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday October 29 2015, @07:23PM
While I agree with most of your post, the point of sending monkeys ahead of humans would be to prove that the trip is survivable by vertebrates.
What I don't get is why they'd want to land the monkeys on Mars. It would make far more sense to bring them back for further study Earthside.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Thursday October 29 2015, @05:59PM
...westboro baptist church combined with the onion with a bit of goatse thrown in for good measure.
I don't know about a newspaper but that certainly sounds like the recipe for a powerful propellant.