# @thespacegal on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/B5-_Vpnlf0K
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/19515804-thespacegal-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/1a3c876d1d.jpg
- **Posted:** 2019-12-12T19:32:05.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Emily Calandrelli (@thespacegal) — https://gondola.cc/thespacegal

## Caption

Did you know that 11 deaf men helped NASA land on the moon?🌚⁣
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I was able to interview David Myers, a member of the Gallaudet 11. This was a group of 11 deaf men who were recruited to do a series of experiments over the course of a decade to help NASA better understand motion sickness during the Apollo era.⁣
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Remember, this was a time when NASA knew NOTHING about how a human would react in space. Would they get sick? If so, how sick? Would they be able to pilot a ship safely? Is there anything we can do to help them?⁣
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The Gallaudet 11 had all become deaf because of spinal meningitis, which had damaged an important part of their ear - the vestibular system. This is also the part of our body that is responsible for motion sickness (although they didn't quite know that at the time). ⁣
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So - these 11 deaf men were immune to motion sickness. This made them ideal candidates to act as a control group in experiments around motion sickness and compare their results to the same experiments with hearing subjects. ⁣
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Learn more about the Gallaudet 11 in my stories (now saved as a highlight) and in Season 6 of #XplorationOuterSpace, which premiers this spring.⁣
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Pictured here is David Myers, the incredible busdoorfilms, myself and my producer karapearltv and one of our ASL/English interpreters (there were 2 interpreters on set, one to facilitate communication b/n the video crew who was deaf and us, and one to facilitate communication between David and us)

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## Tags

xplorationouterspace

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