Two deaf astronaut hopefuls on gravity-free flight
Alex: Last week a crew of 12 people with various disabilities, including two deaf people, went up in the air on a parabolic flight and was able to experience a sense of weightlessness similar to what people experience in space.
The crew was a part of a nonprofit organization called Mission:AstroAccess. When they were on the plane, they conducted various experiments on how they could improve spaceflight for disabled people.
Here is a brief interview with the two deaf participants: Eric Shear and Apurva Varia.
Alex: Last week Sunday, you went on a parabolic flight. Can you describe that experience and what it was like?
Apurva Varia: Oh, it was fun! I felt my body rising, and floating. It felt like I was swimming in a pool, but I couldn’t flip my body because the blood would go up in my head. It felt like I was floating, but the hardest part was signing and constantly leaning elsewhere and hitting the wall. I couldn’t stop myself from going where my body went! It was really fun. You can’t describe it because on Earth you’re used to gravity every day, and during that experience I was full of joy.
Eric Shear: My first time was ten years ago. My feet and my legs kept moving. I couldn’t control my legs, but during my second time I felt more in control of my own movements. I learned how to push and how to move myself in free fall. Just small pushes and motions, not hard, but light pressure. I learned how to control myself. It was a really cool experience.
Alex: Did you do any experiments or discussions about deaf astronauts?
Eric: We tried three experiments: one, light-based experiments with flashing lights from green to start, yellow for end, and red to pay attention to the interpreter. We had an interpreter there, but always as a backup. We used the red light to indicate that we had to pay attention to the interpreter. In the second experiment, I used haptic feedback (vibration) and installed it right here by my arm but it didn’t work that well, because sometimes it’d move away from my arm and I wouldn’t feel it. Right, it would not be touching my skin so I wouldn’t always feel it. It has potential, but it needs to be more in contact with the skin.
Apurva: I want to add to that about the light system. It’s a great idea, but having light behind us or next to us… We told them that the lights would have to be moved up, lesson learned, but the bottom line of why we’re talking about experiments is because when it comes to space in the future, we’re trying to do it independently without an interpreter. There are two ways - one, a notification system, like a light system, some kind of watch, or something that notifies us of updates without it being audio-based. How can we get information from them, through a light-based system, or vibration technology? We just need simple information for that, but for full information with sign language, that kind of technology hasn’t been invented yet. It will be. (Eric) mentioned the third, signing to deaf, but for hearing people in ISS in the future, how do they communicate? You want to train them and teach them sign language. That’s possible. But for us to sign back… If they miss it, how…? We don’t have the technology for them to comprehend our signs. We hope there will be in the future. This isn’t the only flight, we hope to have more in the future.
Alex: Can you explain in general your feelings and your thoughts related to space travel?
Apurva: I think space flight is hot right now. Everyone is talking about it. You mentioned SpaceX, and there’s also Blue Origin, Virgin, and it’s booming right now. Some space organizations are thinking about bringing people to the moon, great. And Mars in the future. Great. Also, putting people in the ISS. Great. I think it’s the right time, but think about disabled people like DeafBlind or with mobility. No one should be left alone and they should be included in the mission of going up to space. AstroAccess helps open doors for people with disabilities to reach space, and I feel that’s growing now.
Eric: In the 50s and 60s, we just started space flight. We didn’t know what effect space flight would have on the human body, so the first astronaut would be a white male military test pilot. Then we didn’t accept women because we didn’t know what effect it would have on women, but we found out. We started flying women, then we found out that they’re handling it fine. Then it’s the same with disabled people. We have a lot of barriers with disabled people accessing space, but most of these barriers are based on ignorance. They don’t know how we will react, there’s only one way to find out - through experiments.
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Alex: If you had the opportunity with SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, or Blue Origin to go to space, would you go for it or would you feel nervous? I’m curious what you’d do if you had the opportunity.
Apurva: I’d definitely go! If you want to go to space, you have to take that risk. You have to accept that. I would love to go no matter what. It’s my dream to go to space! Everybody knows there’s a risk and it’s dangerous, yes, but I’d take that gamble. I’ll accept it. I would love to go!
Eric: Same. I would take the risk. There’s always risks involved. I would go in a heartbeat!
Alex: Thank you both for sharing your experience and insights! Here’s hoping we’ll see a deaf person up there in space in our generation. Check out the links to two articles in the transcript for more information.