Those aren't solar panels sticking
out the stern-- at least, not the sort that the ISS sports.
They're actually mirrors to catch the Sun's rays to power a tiny
mercury boiler to generate electricity.
Custom Search
When
Werner Von Braun et al presented their plan for a future space
programme in Colliers magazine they realised that it wasn't a matter
of leaping straight to Mars. Space was a new frontier about
which very little was known and therefore it had to be approached
cautiously.
This "baby space station" was
intended as man's first toe-dip into the ocean of space. Fitted
as the nosecone of its booster rocket, the Colliers satellite
would unfurl itself in orbit as a miniature robot laboratory.
Inside, we can
see that this wasn't just an instrument package, but carried
passengers as well. In this case, it's a pair of extremely irate
monkeys sent up to determine the effects of weightlessness on future
astronauts.
The monkeys would have been even more irate if
they'd known beforehand how this proto space station was intended to
end its mission
Inside, we can
see that this wasn't just an instrument package, but carried
passengers as well. In this case, it's a pair of extremely irate
monkeys sent up to determine the effects of weightlessness on future
astronauts.