Question: Are there actually apes that are trained to go into space or is it just made up in films? If it is real, how long would it take to train it and what would it have to do?

Michelle Hudson-Shore answered on 21 Jun 2010:

Yes in the 1960s the Americans (NASA) trained chimpanzees and used them to test how things like g-force would affect astronouats they even sent one into orbit his name was Ham. They tend to be trained to do simple tasks like pull a lever to recieve a food reward. They then test whether they can still do this when they are in space. Even before that monkeys were also used and sent in to orbit along with other animals such as dogs and mice. More recently the Russians have proposed using Rhesus Monkeys in space flights to Mars. They are hoping to test the long term effects of radiation that any people who do the trip would be exposed to (see this BBC news report for more information http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7341211.stm). There have been quite a few international objections to the work and I personally don’t agree with it.