In October of 1957, cold war tensions rose between the United States and the Soviet Union after the latter launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik. A year later, newly formed NASA was recruiting a young anesthesiologist to design a new instrument for Project Mercury and the first manned space flight. Cloid D. Green, M.D. (1921 to 2001, upper left) was tasked with building a biopack, or life support system, for primates in the test space missions that ultimately informed the equipment for the Apollo mission. Dr. Green was well positioned to create this new instrument based on his strong research background at the University of Iowa and his recent study of pilots flying at high altitude. While at the University of Iowa, Green (G) had been part of an all-star group (bottom) of anesthesiologists, which had included Drs. Stuart Cullen (C) and rising stars, such as Drs. John Severinghaus (S) and Edmond “Ted” Eger (E). By 1959, Dr. Green and NASA were celebrating the successful launch and retrieval of the Little Joe Capsule and the survival (headlined, upper right) of a rhesus monkey named Sam. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
In October of 1957, cold war tensions rose between the United States and the Soviet Union after the latter launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik. A year later, newly formed NASA was recruiting a young anesthesiologist to design a new instrument for Project Mercury and the first manned space flight. Cloid D. Green, M.D. (1921 to 2001, upper left) was tasked with building a biopack, or life support system, for primates in the test space missions that ultimately informed the equipment for the Apollo mission. Dr. Green was well positioned to create this new instrument based on his strong research background at the University of Iowa and his recent study of pilots flying at high altitude. While at the University of Iowa, Green (G) had been part of an all-star group (bottom) of anesthesiologists, which had included Drs. Stuart Cullen (C) and rising stars, such as Drs. John Severinghaus (S) and Edmond “Ted” Eger (E). By 1959, Dr. Green and NASA were celebrating the successful launch and retrieval of the Little Joe Capsule and the survival (headlined, upper right) of a rhesus monkey named Sam. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
Melissa L. Coleman, M.D., Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, and George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
