Normal scholarship involves surveying all available information, assessing its relative value, and synthesizing from that a set of findings and conclusions.

Conspiracism simply looks for ammunition to support its predetermined conclusion, which naturally engenders cherry-picking and spin.

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Clavius Moon Base

That should have read, "AbelovPes's post here follows Pacner's story of Cernan's Czech flag saga."

Me and my half-melted brain.

Cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky received an average dose rate of 16 mrad/day during his five-day flight on Vostok 5, the highest dose rate experienced by a cosmonaut in the 1960s, if I'm not mistaken. The Cosmos 110 dogs were subjected to and average dose rate of 500 mrad/day, 31¼ times the average dose rate Bykovsky experienced, for a total dose of 12 rad. Bykovsky received a total dose of no more than 80 mrad. The published 1969 Soviet results available at the NCBI/NLM/NIH site that you linked to may be in error when it states that Vostok 5's pilot was subjected to "...a dose rate of 80 to 20 mrad/day." And should the total dose for the dogs be 11 rad, not 12 rad (500 mrad/day x 22 days = 11 rad)? Could this be errors in translation, a liberal use of rounding, or both?

Did the Russians talk to Veterok and Ugolyok and play soothing music to them during their flight? What about dog buscuits?

As JonClarke mentioned, there is a body of published literature regarding the biological payload on board the Zond 5 spacecraft, including this one: A Sept. 1970 article written by NASA scientist Dr. Richard J. Allenby, "Lunar Orbital Science," for the journal Space Science Reviews (Volume 11, Issue 1, pp.5-53), references an article written by Oleg Gazenko et al., "Biological Investigations in Outer Space (Zond-5)," published in Pravda 320, Nov. 1968. Relying on a translation of the article provided by Volt Information Sciences, Inc., Dr. Allenby learned that "...The total radiation dose was 'a few rads'. The turtles lost 10% of their weight during the trip, and upon return were active and hungry...."

One possible reason the durable little guys lost weight and were hungry is that apparently they had nothing to eat during their one-week space adventure. Food deprivation was a feature of the experiment, as evident in the title of N.A. Gaidamakin's et al. 1969 paper, "Patho-morphological and histochemical changes in the organs of turtles onboard the Zond-5 probe (Pathomorphological and histochemical changes in turtle organs under influence of aerospace environment and starvation)." Thanks, again, JonClarke.

I used Google News Archive Search to search the phrase "Zond 5". I was able find American newspaper articles and a news service that covered Zond 5, which splashed down on Sept. 21, 1968. The following is a sampling of relevant search results:

1. "Russians Confirm Flight of Zond 5 Around the Moon; SOVIET CONFIRMS A FLIGHT TO MOON, Raymond H. Anderson, The New York Times, Sept. 21, 1968, Saturday, Page 1, 469 words. Excerpt: "MOSCOW, Sept. 20 -- The Soviet Union confirmed today that Zond 5, an automatic spacecraft thought to be a forerunner for a manned flight, arched around the moon Wednesday and "continued its flight." The announcement was interpreted here as an indication that the craft might be returning to earth."

2. "Recovery of Zond 5 From Sea Gives Russ Moon Plans Boost, Richard Reston, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 23, 1968, section: part one, 949 words.

3. "Science; Russia's Ring Around the Moon," Raymond H. Anderson, The New York Times, Sept. 29, 1968, Sunday, Section: the week in review, Page E8, 921 words. Excerpt: "MOSCOW -- The Soviet Union glowed happily last week in the world-wide praise of the precise feat of its space scientists in firing an unmanned spacecraft, Zond 5, around the moon and guiding it back to earth for a successful recovery in the Indian Ocean."

4. "Report Russ Moon Flight a Flop," Chicago Tribune, Oct. 1, 1968, page A11, section 1A, 431 words. Excerpt: "The flight of Zond 5 around the moon and back to earth was a virtual disaster for the soviet space program and would have killed a cosmonaut if one had been aboard, high United States sources said today."

5. "Apollo 7 Proves We Can Do It; Dec. Moon Orbit Scheduled," The Bryan Times, Oct. 24, 1968, photo scan of page 6. Excerpt: "--The Zond 5 circumlunar flight was not the perfect performance the Russians said it was. If there had been a man aboard, he would have been lucky to survive the heat and pressures of Zond's re-entry into the atmosphere. U.S. intelligence believes Zond came down thousands of miles from the planned position after an extremely rough and prolonged descent."

6. "Nov 1968 - II-Day MAnned Flight by U.S. “Apollo” Spacecraft. - Resumption of Soviet Manned Flights. - Lunar Missions by Soviet Space Probes.," Keesing's Record of World Events - Keesing's Worldwide, (Nov. 1, 1968), Volume 14, November, 1968 Soviet, Page 23053. Excerpt from the Google search results page: "This mission was carried out by the Soviet Zond 5, which was launched on Sept. ... 15 that Zond 5 had carried biological specimens, including tortoises, ..." (41 days after Zond 5 splashed down. -- Alan)

7. "Live specimens survive Soviet trip around moon," The Bulletin, Nov. 15, 1968, photo scan of page 8, 240 words. Excerpt: "MOSCOW (UPI) - The Soviet Union announced today it has rocketed around the moon turtles, wine flies and other specimens of animal and plant life. They all survived the trip." (55 days after Zond 5 splashed down. Was Gazenko's article in Pravda (see beginning of post) published at this time? -- Alan)

8. "Soviets Tell Body Changes in Moon Probe," Chicago Tribune, Nov. 16, 1968, page A18, section 1B, 290 words. Excerpt from the Google search results page: "Pravda said Zond 5's turtles "were very active" upon re- turning to earth. The creatures "moved around a lot and ate with appetite," it said. ..."

9. "American Astronauts Admit 'Simple' Moon Flight Bit Ri[sky]," Eugene Register-Guard, Nov. 17, 1968, photo scan of page 1. A portion of the right side of page 1 is overlapped by page 2A. Excerpt: "...Soviet space scientists said turtles which made a similar flight aboard Zond 5 in September suffered major tissue changes, and hinted these might have been cause[d] [text overlapped by page 2A ] the Moon." (I will see if I can find this article at the library. -- Alan)

10. "Zond 6 Made Tricky Entry," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 19, 1968, photo scan of page 2. Excerpt: "...Zond 5 carried turtles and insects, but this was not disclosed for more than three weeks after the moon shot had landed." (The disclosure would have been some time after Oct. 12, 1968. -- Alan)

11. "Soviet Finds Turtles Back From Space More Active," The New York Times, August 22, 1971, Sunday, Page 31, 135 words. Excerpt: "MOSCOW, Aug. 21 (UPI) -Turtles fired into space in a medical experiment came back thinner but more active and hungry, a Soviet scientist said this week."

Thanks for those links Alan, it is always interesting to read what people said at the time.

I am not sure where item 4 was coming from. Zond 5 was was a great success. Maybe it was confused with Zond 4, which came in too steeply and would have killed a crew.

Item 5 may show the same confusion. Zone 2 came in over South Atlantic, Zond 5 over the Indian Ocean. Easy to see how people might see this as being off course. However the Indian Ocean was exactly where it was meant to go.

Jon

Zond 5 was a great success, but it was not problem-free. The spacecraft's star tracker eventually failed and ground controllers had to use less accurate backup attitude sensors to perform midcourse corrections. Complicating the situation, a ground controller error caused the gyroscopic platform to go down. The result was that the spacecraft had to make a 20 g ballistic reentry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean, not the preferred guided reentry with a landing in Soviet territory.

See:
"Afanasyev Sergei Chronology"
"Chronology - Quarter 3 1968"
"Solar System Exploration: Missions: By Year: 1960-1969: Zond 5"
Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration, by Brian Harvey, 2006, pp. 184-187 (Again, the wrong species of turtle is reproduced here.)

Well, I found the same article published as "Spacemen air Christmas voyage plans," with a subheadline, "DISCOUNT RADIATION FEARS," Rome News-Tribune, Nov. 17, 1968, photo scan of page 1. Excerpt: "...Soviet space scientists said turtles which made a similar flight aboard Zond 5 in September suffered major tissue changes, and hinted these might have been caused by radiation at the moon."

The Central Library in downtown Portland, Oregon, do not hold older editions of Pravda in their collection. A public librarian told me that Portland State University's Branford P. Millar Library held old Pravda editions. I may visit PSU's library this Sunday.

In the meantime, I now know that "Pravda 320, Nov. 1968" was indeed the Nov. 15, 1968, edition of the newspaper, the "320" being the 320th edition of the newspaper published that year. Apparently, UPI's office in Moscow picked up on Pravda's Nov. 15, 1968, article about the biological specimens on board Zond 5 and American newspapers published UPI's report the very same day. I will endeavor to confirm the existence of the Pravda article with my visit to PSU's library.

As Raymond H. Anderson wrote in The New York Times regarding the Zond 5 spashdown, "The Soviet Union glowed happily...."

Now then, the four turtles on board Zond 7, the Soviet circumlunar mission of August 7-14, 1969, faired better.

Oh, trodas, turtles are nature's tanks. But what of Veterok and Ugolyok in 1966? They were mammals and wore no armor, but did they have dogged determination.

Alan, you seem to have entirely to much free time on your hands! But thanks for the research.

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At PSU's library today, I was able to waste more of my free time and confirm the existence of the Nov. 15, 1968, page 3 Pravda article, "БИОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ В КОСМОСЕ," on microfilm. The seven-column Soviet science article was written by О. Газенко (O. Gazenko), П. Саксонов (P. Saksonov), В. Антипов (V. Antipov), and Г. Парфенов (G. Parfenov).

The Soviet article mentions черепахи (turtles) as being among the biological specimens aboard Зонд-5 (Zond 5).

Once again, trodas, you are wrong.

Pravda did cover the Apollo 11 Moon landing: "ЗЕМЛЯНЕ НА ЛУНЕ," Pravda 203, July 22, 1969, page 5 (quite a few words and a picture of the Earthmen on the Moon).

Getting somewhat back on topic, trodas mentioned Czech cosmonaut Vladimir Remek. Eugene Cernan and Remek were involved in a helicopter crash in the Czech Republic in 2001. Both spacemen escaped without injury, but two helicopter crew members were seriously hurt.

How many other astronauts came from communist countries?

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Going by this list, I get 88.

Afghanistan: 1
Bulgaria: 2
Cuba: 1
Czechoslovakia: 1
East Germany: 1
Hungary: 1
Poland: 1
Mongolia: 1
P.R. of China: 6
U.S.S.R.: 72
Vietnam: 1

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I guess Rodin actually meant how many of NASA's 'American' astronauts originally came from communist countries, rather than how many astronauts have been sent up from communist countries.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

In Cernan's case, at the time of his birth in Chicago, Illinois, in 1934, Czechoslovakia was not under communist rule.

Dr. Eugene H. Trinh was born in Saigon, State of Vietnam, in 1950 and his family moved to Paris, France, when he was two years old. He has been living in the U.S. since 1968.

Dr. Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid was born in Shanghai, China, in 1943 to American parents.

Dr. Taylor Wang was born in Shanghai, China, in 1940. His family moved to Taiwan in 1952, three years after the communists came to power in China. He became a U.S. citizen in 1975.

Charles Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1948. He moved to the U.S. in 1968 and became a space tourist in 2007.

Maybe Cernan should stay away from helicopters, that is his second crash in one.

Jon

As a follow-up, here are two Czech stories that covered Štefánikova Observatory's Apollo 11 exhibit, both featuring video clips:

"V petřínské hvězdárně je k vidění kámen z Měsíce"
"Kámen z Měsíce, který přivezlo Apollo 11, výjimečně uvidíte na Petříně"

From the stories, it would appear that Czechoslovakia's only sample of Moon rocks was at one time lost and then was found during a cleaning in the 1990s. The stories also mention the loss of a high percentage of Moon rocks given to 135 countries 40 years ago.

The exhibit was protected by a security system.

An August 8, 2009, Slovak story by Vladimír Jancura, "Vlajku z Mesiaca politici v ČSSR nechceli," is another account of Cernan's quest to flag the Czechs.

I would like to thank egee and call me mr. kill joy at trodas' fourm for the links.

Treats for Veterok and Ugolyok while flying? Possibly. But they certainly became lucky dogs later......for science.

D.E. Philpott, et al. "Experiment K-6-16. Morphological examination of rat testes. The effect of Cosmos 1887 flight on spermatogonial population and testosterone level in rat testes." Ames Research Center. Feb. 1, 1990:
Gregory A. Nelson. "Radiation In Microgravity." Space Biological Sciences Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 1994: