In attaining our ideals,our meansshould be as pure as the end!

Dr Rajendra Prasad02 BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Zoologists and lion researcherssay that ‘The Lion King’ getsreal-life lion family dynamicswrong. For instance, it’s alwaysa matriarch which actually leadsa lion pride...

Watching Simba and hispals try to regain theirrightful place in the king-dom may have you think-ing that Disney’s “The

Lion King” is a pretty accurate depictionof what happens in the African savanna.But it’s no nature documentary. Real lionsdon’t rule over other creatures. And they

certainly don’t try to return home oncethey’ve left the lion pride. Disney took alot of creative licence when it comes to lionbehaviour and family dynamics, zoologistsand lion researchers say.

If the movie were true to big-cat life,the rivalry between Simba’s father Mu-fasa and his uncle Scar would not haveexisted, and the lion cub would not havebeen forced to flee so young.

In fact, Mufasa would not have ruledthe pride at all.“It’s always a matriarchwho actually leads a lion pride,” saidCraig Saffoe, curator of great cats atSmithsonian’s National Zoo in Washing-ton, the US Simba’s mother Sarabi wouldhave been the more likely leader of thegroup. And the movie would have beenmore accurate if it were called “The LionQueen”. In a typical African pride, there

are three to six adult females. Most daugh-ters are recruited to stay with their moth-er’s pride until they die, so there are of-ten several generations of related females,making the lion society quite matriar-chal. Two or three adult males also livewith the females. They are usually broth-ers or pride mates who have formed acoalition to help protect the females. Butthey spend only a few years with the pride— long enough to produce more offspring— before they go out and seek a new one.So if Disney had followed typical big catbehaviour, Scar and Mufasa would havehappily co-existed in their pride.

“It’s possible that Mufasa wouldhave been the more dominant one in thecoalition, but one of the females wouldhave been dominant over both of them,”said Saffoe.

MISSESReal lions don’t rule over other crea-tures. And they certainly don’t try to re-turn home once they’ve left the lion pride.Although male lions appear much big-ger and more aggressive, females aremore dominant. They do the importantdecision-making. They are in charge ofthe majority of hunting and cub-raising.

HITSOne aspect of lion family life that Dis-ney did get right, however, is the affec-tion Mufasa shows to his son. When adultmales return from patrolling the prideterritory, they seem to enjoy getting toknow their cubs, with lots of licking, headrubbing and purring involved.

Buzz Aldrinwearing theMoonwalkApollo 11 astronautBuzz Aldrin on thesurface of the moon– July 20, 1969.

Yuri Gagarin’s SK-1 SuitOn April 12, 1961, Soviet cos-monaut Yuri Gagarin usheredin the era of manned space-flight aboard Vostok 1. Duringthe flight, he wore an SK-1pressure suit with an auxil-iary life support system.

Russia’s SokolSpacesuitsDuring launch and landing,Russian cosmonauts wearSokol spacesuits. The suitsdate back to early times inRussia’s space programme.The full-pressure space suit, equipped with an auxil-iary life support system and survival features, pro-vided for cosmonaut safety under all expected envi-ronmental conditions of flight.

Ejection Escape SuitWhen the first shuttle flight,STS-1, lifted off on April 12,1981, astronauts John Youngand Robert Crippen wore theejection escape suit. Both the ejection suits andejection seats were attachedto the specially designed suits with life support system.

Chinese spacesuits for launchChina has also developed twospacesuit types, one forlaunches and landings aboardthe country’s Shenzhou spacecapsules, and another suit,the Feitian, for spacewalks.HERE: The crew of China’sfourth human spaceflight Shenzhou 9, which includesChina’s first woman astronaut liu Yang (left), veteran JingHaipeng, and first-time flyer Liu Wang.

Gordon Cooper inProject Mercury Suit - 1959The Mercury space suit (orNavy Mark IV) was a full-body, high-altitude pressuresuit originally developed bythe BF Goodrich Companyand the US Navy for pilots ofhigh-altitude fighter aircraft.It’s best known for its role asthe spacesuit worn for allmanned Project Mercuryspaceflights. HERE: GordonCooper in 1959 Mercuryflight suit.

The complete SuitAstronaut John Young wore thecomplete ejection escape suit mod-eled here. The suits weren’tdesigned for EVAs in space, but justin case Nasa had to abort a missionon the way to space, and astro-nauts needed to survive an ejectionfrom a supersonic craft.

Glenn in Mercury SuitAstronaut John Glenn was the firstAmerican to orbit Earth in 1962 inhis Mercury suit. The spacesuitwas developed by the BF GoodrichCompany. This Navy MK-IV fullpressure suit came with 100% lifesupport systems.

Project ApolloSpacesuitEngineer Bill Peterson fits testpilot Bob Smyth in an Apollospace suit with a LunarExcursion Module restraint har-ness during suit testing in 1968.This suit was designed special-ly for lunar landings.

Apollo 14 command-er Alan ShepardApollo 14 commander AlanShepard during suit checksbefore his trip to the lunar sur-face in 1971.

Project GeminiMission SpacesuitsThe suit is worn for launch, in-flight activities and landing. Itwas designed on the basis of theX-15 high-altitude pressure suit.

Project GeminiSpacesuitMoonwalker Neil Armstrong wearshis Gemini G-2C training suit.Unlike the “soft” Mercury suit, thewhole Gemini suit was made to beflexible when pressurised. This issupposed to be the “best suit thathas been made”.

Russia’s OrlanSpacesuitRussia’s Orlan spacesuits arebulkier than NASA’s EMU versions,with cosmonauts donning themby climbing through an opening inthe back. They are used aboardthe International Space Stationfor Russian spacewalks.

China in SpaceChina’s Feitian spacesuit was mod-elled after the Orlan-M spacesuitdeveloped by Russia. The twokinds of suits are similar in shapeand volume and are designed forspacewalks of up to seven hours,providing oxygen and allowing forthe excretion of bodily waste.

MK III AdvancedSpacesuitDr Dean Eppler wears the MK IIIadvanced demonstration space-suit during a 2002 field test offuturistic technology in Arizona.

First American SpacewalkThe Gemini spacesuit was Ed White’s per-sonal spacecraft when he left the Gemini IVcapsule for the first American spacewalk onJune 3, 1965.

Floating Free SpacesuitIn February 1984, shuttle astro-naut Bruce McCandless becamethe first astronaut to floatin space untethered,thanks to a devicecalled MannedManuevering Unit,or MMU which wasa part of hisspacesuit.

Pumpkin SuitThe familiar orangelaunch-and-entry suitworn by shuttlecrews is nicknamed“pumpkin suit” forits colour.

1Which American President feltthe pressure to beat the then

Soviet Union in the space race andannounced the dramatic goal ofputting an American on the Moon?

A. Dwight D Eisenhower, B. John FKennedy, C. Lyndon B Johnson

2Gus Grissom, Ed White andRoger Chaffee – who are they?

A. They could have been the firstAmericans to get to space, B. Theywere the first Americans to get tospace, C. They were the crew ofNASA’s Mercury Missions, the pre-cursor to the Apollo Missions

3Which of the following ApolloMissions was the first

American one to get to space?

A. Apollo 1, B. Apollo 7, C. Apollo 3

4What does the term“Earthrise” refer to?

A. Photo of Earth taken by NeilArmstrong from the Moon B. Photo of Earth taken by a crewmember of Apollo 8 spacecraftorbiting the Moon C. Photo of Earth taken by theInternational Space Station

5We know Neil Armstrong andBuzz Aldrin. But who was the

third crew member who wasaboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft?

A. Thomas Stafford, B. EugeneCernan, C. Michael Collins

6Which of the following istrue about Apollo 10, the

predecessor of the Moon craft?

A. Its lunar module’s docking wasthe first colour television trans-mission from space B. It took the first crewed flightaround the Moon C. It was the first to carry a lunarmodule into orbit

7When did the US end its lunarflights?

A. 1972, B. 1975, C. 1980

8By when does the US want togo back to the Moon, “this

time to stay”?

A. 2024, B. 2020, C. 2029

9What is common between theChandrayaan 2 mission and

the NASA’s mission to go back tothe Moon?

A. The Lunar North PoleB. The Lunar South Pole

10Which was the last Apollomission?

A. Apollo 17, B. Apollo 12, C. Apollo 13

What is a spacesuit?A spacesuit is much more than a setof clothes astronauts wear on space-walks. A fully equipped spacesuit isreally a one-person spacecraft. Theformal name for the spacesuit used onthe space shuttle and InternationalSpace Station is the ExtravehicularMobility Unit, or EMU.“Extravehicular” means outside thevehicle or spacecraft. “Mobility”means that the astronaut can movearound in the suit. The spacesuit pro-tects the astronaut from the dangersof being outside in space.

What are the parts of a spacesuit?The Hard Upper Torso covers theastronaut’s chest. The arm assemblycovers the arms and connects to thegloves. The helmet andExtravehicular Visor Assembly aredesigned to protect the astronaut’shead. The lower torso assembly cov-ers the astronaut’s legs and feet. Theflexible parts of the suit are madefrom several layers of material.

SHOULD IT BE THE LION QUEEN?

THE EVOLUTIONOF THE

SPACESUITThe spacesuitmay be theultimate fashionstatement. A suitthat is both apersonalspaceship and alife support pod,it allowsastronauts towork in harshconditions. Theseimages show howthe spacesuit hasevolved throughthe years

ANSWERS: 1. B, 2. A, 3. B, 4. B, 5. C, 6. A, 7. A, 8. A, 9. B, 10. A