EARLY FEEDERS FOR SPACE DOGS
The automatic feeder (ABOVE) was made up of a number of small food trays positioned side by side.  Each
food tray was filled with a food and water mix in gelatin form.  Also, each tray was covered by a sliding
cover.  At timed intervals the trays moved along on a motor driven conveyor belt and a timer exposed one
tray of food at a time by sliding its cover back under the cabin floor.  When a new tray of gelatin food was
exposed, the mechanical sound of the sliding cover signaled dinner time for the dog passenger who was
trained to respond to the sound - (ALSO SEE BELOW- DINNER AT THE SOUND OF A BELL).  NOTE- THE
ABOVE AUTOMATIC DESIGN USED A LOT OF ELECTRICAL POWER AND IT WAS NOT FLOWN ON SPUTNIK-2  
The above photo is from "A-Z the Soviet Encyclopedia of Space Flight".
SPECIAL NOTE - IT WAS NOT CLEAR IF LAIKA COULD EAT AT ALL IN ZERO G.  SO ONE BIG TRAY, FILLED WITH
EIGHT DAYS OF FOOD, WAS FLOWN ON SPUTNIK-2.  THE ENTIRE ONE HALF GALLON OF GELATIN FOOD WAS
EXPOSED PRIOR TO LAUNCH BY REMOVING THE COVER ELECTRO MECHANICALLY.  THE SPUTNIK-2
FEEDING TRAY (SEE BELOW RED ARROW) WAS LESS COMPLICATED THAN THE ABOVE AND ITS SIMPLER
DESIGN ALSO SAVED WEIGHT AND ELECTRICITY. - REFERENCE (3D)



DOGS TRAINED FOR - DINNER AT THE SOUND OF A BELL
see article below from DAILY MAIL - NOV. 4, 1957

BELOW ARE CORRECTIONS FOR ERRORS IN THE ABOVE ARTICLE

The 20.005 mc-(megacycles) was a beeping signal at a wavelength of 14 meters NOT 7.5 meters as shown.
The 40.002 mc-(megacycles) was a steady carrier at a wavelength of 7.5 meters NOT 15 meters as shown.
The 40.002 mc steady carrier is described in the article as a "continuous howl", or more commonly called a
continuous tone, as it would sound like when the ground receiver had its BFO turned on.  The 40.002mc
steady carrier was used for doppler tracking ONLY.  Contrary to the above article, it DID NOT carry
information on the condition of Laika the dog.  "Laika's vitals were radioed back to earth by the TRAL-D
telemetry on a higher frequency somewhere around 66 and 70MHz. (3E)"
A newspaper report from November 15, 1957 - Rumors suggested that Laika's last food was laced with
poison that hopefully she would eat and put her to sleep. -(SEE ARTICLE BELOW)    Sputnik-2 was a simple
design and the more likely plan was to let Laika die from the buildup of CO2 when the air regeneration
chemicals were depleted OR when the battery was depleted which would have shutdown the two
circulating fans which sucked air through the two regeneration / air scrubbers.  "The current thinking says
Laika died from heat and stress some 5 to 7 hours into the mission. (2)"
Sept. 23-2010 UPDATE- Dear Reader, The reference to "Howl" in the above article does not imply that
Laika's howling was picked up and transmitted to Earth by an on board microphone on Sputnik-2.  After
years of research and to the best of my knowledge, the Sputnik-2 capsule did not have a microphone for
picking up barking and howling.