Cosmic Critters: The Frogs That Went to Space

Frogs. In. Space. Yep, you read that right! In this episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole take you on a hilarious and mind-blowing journey into the weirdest space experiment you’ve probably never heard of—the Orbiting Frog Otolith mission.

Back in the 1970s, NASA decided that launching two bullfrogs into orbit was a great idea. Why? To study how weightlessness affects the inner ear and balance. But the story doesn’t stop there—these amphibian astronauts, named Pierre and Tinam, endured some wild conditions, from pressure changes to a rather unfortunate fate.

Join us as we dive into the bizarre, laugh at the absurd, and uncover why frogs were chosen for space travel in the first place. If you love strange science, history’s quirkiest experiments, or just want to hear about a frog named Pierre floating in space, this episode is for you!

Transcript

Laura: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Wildly Curious, a podcast that tells you everything you need to know about nature, and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.

Katy: And I'm Katy and we're back for the third Cosmic Critters where today we're gonna be talking about the orbiting frog otolith.

Laura: That's awesome. Wait. Oh, okay. Gaseousis. I was like otolith. I know that word.

Katy: I'll offer because it's o. f. o, the o. f. o mission.

Laura: O. Okay. All

Katy: Yeah, so they're getting fancy now. The first week for Cosmic Critters we had Laika, last week we had Felicity the cat, so the dog, the cat. Now we're gonna talk about frogs, because why not? Why not? Yeah, it's quite the jump. All right, oh, so when we think about space exploration, the first images that come to mind are probably astronauts.

Like we said, dogs, cats, definitely not frogs. I didn't know we did this. Like, right? I had no, I, I didn't know we,

Laura: [00:01:00] I

think I'd heard about it but I have known no information. Like, I knew it had happened, but I did not know the specifics.

Katy: Yeah. So in the early 1970s, this is after,, we're kind of at least so far going in

Laura: tried a lot of mammals at this point.

Katy: Yeah, let's do frogs.

So two bullfrogs became unlikely pioneers in humanity's quest to understand the effects of space and living beings. And so, I'm going to talk about the Orbiting Frog Autolith Mission, or OFO, which is one of the oddest ones that I've come across, as far as space biology goes. By the 1970s, NASA had already launched primates, rodents, even, insects and things into orbit, but the O.

F. O. mission took a decidedly amphibious turn. Wadoom. The goal was to study how microgravity affects the autolith organs. So those little structures in the inner ear

Laura: That's right. I was like, I know. The otoliths are the stones in your ears, right?

Katy: yeah, so the inner ear [00:02:00] that's responsible for balance and spatial orientation. So the results,

Laura: if they get you're messed up, man, if they get messed up.

Katy: yes, if they get messed up, you are In for some trouble here.

Laura: for a while.

Katy: Yeah, which I mean, why not do it to a dog then, I guess.

Laura: their crystals messed up from getting hit in the head or falling.

Katy: Oh, really? Ugh. No, thank you. So the result of this research would help scientists better understand how human vestibular systems might adapt to life in space. To do this, NASA turned to an unexpected partner, the bullfrog. Why frogs? Their inner ear anatomy is actually remarkably similar to ours, making them an ideal model for studying Everything ear in space.

Plus, as amphibians, they could survive unique conditions in space with fairly minimal support. I mean,

Laura: Considering how sensitive amphibians are, like, if the temperature is too warm, if there's any dirt in the water dead. But, [00:03:00] like, you can launch

Katy: they, okay, so,

Laura: they're fine?

Katy: they can be to space, but chytrid fungus, you know what I mean? Like, takes, wipes them out. Or, use it if it's too hot, too cold. Maybe frogs have just got picky. They've started getting arrogant. They're like, you know what? We've been to space before humans. My tank needs to be warmer.

My tank needs to be colder. You know, just got Got arrogant. So NASA sourced their space bound frogs from a Louisiana frog company Located in rain, Louisiana, right? Right,

Laura: they did. I was literally thinking, Boy, bullfrogs, that sounds real southern.

Katy: Yeah, right But again, I just had assumed like I shouldn't have that they just probably again if I was assigned to say I need a frog Okay, go get the proper permits. I'm gonna go just

Laura: You don't even need permits to get bullfrogs. There's like

Katy: No, not both. Yeah,

Laura: you just get them in a sack.

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: Go, go gig a frog and send it to space. [00:04:00] What?

Katy: is actually dubbed the frog capital of the world. Yes. So from a group of,

Laura: like a bit, Like

Katy: The town closest to me, they are self proclaimed, most unique restaurant capital of the world. Okay, there are some, it's not, there are good restaurants there, but it's a tiny, it's, oh,

Laura: Louisiana is competing against the Amazon Rainforest and they're claiming to be the frog capital of the world? Like, maybe for eating?

Katy: But no, so I guess Louisiana, you know, forget the Amazon, Louisiana, which I mean, to be fair, it probably does have and did, especially back then. Yeah, so many frogs.

So from a group of about 20 contenders, four finalists were selected, including two backups. The chosen pair affectionately named Pierre and Tinam. Why? Don't know. Pierre?

Laura: from Louisiana? The French Quarter? Like what?

Katy: I don't know. But these weren't frogs, just ordinary frogs anymore. They were [00:05:00] outfitted for a journey. Clearly unlike any other frog before them, so scientists surgically implanted electrodes into their vestibular nerves to monitor their neural activity to reduce movement and ensure their implant plant stayed in place.

The frogs,

Laura: No,

Katy: remember how we said

Laura: Trigger warnings,

Katy: trigger warning. Here it comes. The frogs limb nerves were severed. So while this could like the nerves. So while this may sound intense. It was a carefully planned, step to ensure that the frogs could survive the mission's duration. Without food or unnecessary stress.

So it was like, they didn't want

Laura: Unnecessary stress! Don't

Katy: I can't.

Laura: Remain calm. We will just

Katy: That was the unnecessary stress. I think I pulled that from a Nat Geo article. Cause I was laughing so hard.

Laura: unnecessary stress.

Katy: So it's just a bob of a frog now. Cause [00:06:00] it has it has it's arms and legs. Cause you know, you need to strap it down. But it can't feel. It can't do anything.

Laura: It's like a little table in there, just, well it's, it's just a brain, you know what I mean? Like it's what you

Katy: know what I mean?

Yeah, right. Ah! As,

Laura: space travel being, right? Right? Like just, you're hooked into the computer and,

Katy: Right?

Laura: Poor

Pierre. 

Katy: Which, again, is my favorite frog name now of all time, Pierre. The frogs were placed into the Frog Otolith Experiment Package, or F O E P, FOEP, which I'm 

Laura: like, their acronyms. Yeah.

Katy: they all love their acronyms. So it was a water filled chamber where they could breathe, , They still had a spot where they could, breathe through their skin.

And, it was set up as best as they could for it being a frog with no limb

Laura: with no function. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're just half submerged, but they can't control how submerged.[00:07:00] 

Katy: right, so,

Laura: is just sloshing everywhere and they can't do a dang thing about it. It's just

Katy: that the water cushioned them from the vibrations of the launch. But,

Laura: it's full of water.

Katy: correct. And so that's why I'm like,

Laura: against their frog eyeballs.

Katy: yeah. So I don't think, I don't think I might have had , I don't know, like a little bit? But again, like you said, if not, it's, I don't know, I don't know. I tried to find, yeah.

Laura: Oh my gosh! like a It's so horrible! Solely

Katy: Poor Pierre and Tinam,

Laura: I guess that makes, I mean,

Katy: So, on November 9th, 1970, Pierre and Tinam blasted off board a Scout B rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. Their spacecraft, the OFO 1, entered low Earth [00:08:00] orbit, becoming one of the first missions dedicated to studying how weightlessness affects vestibular function. That was the whole purpose of this.

There hadn't been, any other missions that had focused, just on this in particular. Yeah.

Laura: your, your otoliths give you your sense of, Like, your sense of place. And so if, an astronaut, right, that would certainly impact those, those crystals. And how do you orient yourself?

Correct. And so that was the whole point of this one. And so once in orbit, 

I mean, I guess they're, so they're getting, they're getting vestibular nerve activity. But it's not when they get back, they're interviewing Pierre and Tinam and like, so, like,

Katy: How did it feel?

Laura: Did

you, lose your sense of self and direction? Like, they're like, yeah, no, that would have been pretty hard since we were strapped down and couldn't move.

Katy: yeah. So, once in orbit, the [00:09:00] onboard centrifuge simulated gravity at interview poles, allowing researchers to measure how frogs otolith organs responded to shifts between microgravity and artificial gravity. Data from the electrodes implanted in their inner ears were tracked and transmitted back to Earth for analysis.

As with any space mission, challenges, of course, arose. During the experiment, the pressure in the canister unexpectedly increased to 11 PSI, and the temperatures dropped to about 55 degrees 

Laura: That's surprising, you'd think with that, like, the increase of pressure, increased pressure makes higher temperatures.

Katy: Yes.

Laura: So it cooked

Katy: Well, but, but, but it didn't. It was increased pressure, but it was already so, it was starting to be, get too cold. Yeah. These conditions were, of course, not ideal, but ground tr control experiments showed that they likely had little impact on the frog's well being.

I mean, just got kind of

cold. 

Laura: couldn't get much worse, they already had [00:10:00] no limb function and were in space.

Katy: Right? Yeah. It can't get much, much worse. Right? Where's his

Laura: They're just chit chat I literally just imagine these two poor little guys just strapped next to each other in these horrible conditions just Well, T Nom, it could not get much worse than this.

Like, just

Katy: Right? And unlike the first two that we talked about, , this mission continued for just over six days, until November 15th, 1970. When the spacecraft's battery died, bringing the UFO mission to an end. And despite the hiccups, the mission was, deemed a success.

Because 

Laura: they go?

Katy: So it said that, the spacecraft, the battery died, the frogs then died, because they could tell that from everything being transmitted back. But it said that because, the satellite failed, meaning, yeah, the mission ended, the frogs were dead, but technically then that spacecraft remained in orbit.

Laura: They're just floating out there, little frogsicles.

Katy: Yeah, [00:11:00] frog sickles.

Laura: Fifty years later we just find a tiny little satellite and in Can you even imagine if in the future? Cause things will just orbit in perpetuity for, you know, 

Katy: Yes. 

Laura: 500 years from now. No, but there's no record of us.

Human civilization is gone. And, or, or, we've forgotten all things. We come back to visit Earth and we just run into this little tiny canister and you open it up and there are two frogs strapped in! Like little spacemen.

Katy: Like a little

Laura: that would be the weirdest thing to find!

Katy: No, it would be. It would

Laura: You'd be like, they were frog people.

Katy: 100 percent you'd think we were frog people. 

If you Google the orbiting Frog Otolith mission, you can see kinda the canister that they kept them in.

Laura: Okay Oh, it's stripey, like a Beetlejuice container.

Katy: Yeah, but see it's, yeah, but it's like a, [00:12:00] if you look at some of the pictures on the, the inside of it, it's a, I don't know, a net, almost like a net canister thing. You know?

Laura: Mm hmm.

Katy: Regardless, you're still gonna end up with a frog Popsicle. So the results of the OFO mission were groundbreaking, of course. Scientists discovered that frogs experience initial disorientation and weightlessness because of the things that they implanted in their brain and everything that was transmitting the data back, with the vestibular responses normalizing within 10 to 20 hours.

So because it was up there for so many days, 6 days, almost 7 days in a row, they could tell, yes, the frog's initial reaction, they definitely felt something, but then it went back to normal.

Laura: Hmm.

Katy: So this acclimation, provided valuable insights into how human vestibular systems might adapt to microgravity.

Basically paving the way, just like everything else we've talked about. Just how do we go ahead and how do we, I don't know, adapt this now [00:13:00] for humans that we keep basing everything off of. So yeah, frogs Pierre and Tinam,

Laura: That's amazing.

Katy: right? All right guys, so that is the third one. We'll have another normal length episode next week, and then we have two more, Cosmic Critter episodes after this, and then, two more?

Yeah, two more, I 

Laura: two or three. Depends on

if I get that third one written. Bye for

Katy: more done and then yeah, so we will talk to you guys next week Go make sure you check us out on YouTube just search the wildly curious podcast and check us out on patreon and support us if you can and Because it would definitely greatly help us and help us keep bringing you guys great content