Their work helped build the incredible space missions that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are constantly being reminded of Isaac Newton\u2019s famous quote, \u201cIf I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.\u201d Eleven such giants were recruited as volunteers from Gallaudet University <\/a>(then Gallaudet College) in Washington, D.C. in 1958. Their task was to help researchers understand the effects of weightlessness on Deaf<\/a> people who didn\u2019t experience motion sickness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deemed the Gallaudet Eleven<\/a>, they helped pave the way for hundreds of space flights<\/a>, including the most recent Artemis II. Ranging in age from 25 to 48 years, the eleven men included Harold Domich, Robert Greenmun, Barron Gulak, Raymond Harper, Jerald Jordan, Harry Larson, David Myers, Donald Peterson, Raymond Piper, Alvin Steele, and John Zakutney. Each and every one of them selflessly gave their time and their bodies to what would become monstrous breakthroughs in astrophysics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Actor and Deaf activist, Nyle DiMarco<\/a>, recently took to social media to share the historical tidbit, lest people forget. In an Instagram reel<\/a>, he wrote,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s talking about Artemis II. The first humans to travel to the moon in 50 years. Historic mission. But nobody\u2019s talking about the Deaf men who made it possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the late 1950s, NASA had a problem. They needed to understand what weightlessness does to the human body. But every test subject kept getting violently motion sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So they came to Gallaudet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eleven Deaf men. Most of them had lost their hearing to spinal meningitis as children, which also damaged their vestibular system. Their inner ears couldn\u2019t be overwhelmed. They were immune to motion sickness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NASA put them in centrifuges. Zero-gravity flights. A rotating room for twelve straight days. One experiment on a ferry in choppy Nova Scotia waters. The researchers got so seasick they had to cancel it. The Gallaudet Eleven? They were playing cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their bodies gave NASA the data it needed to send humans into space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Gallaudet Eleven \u2014 no Mercury. No Mercury \u2014 no Apollo. No Apollo \u2014 no Artemis II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sixty years later, four astronauts just flew 252,000 miles from Earth and came home safely. They stood on the shoulders of eleven Deaf men most people have never heard of. Now you know! #nasa #gallaudet11 #artemisii @nasa\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The post has already received nearly 400,000 likes and over 6,000 comments. One Instagrammer writes, \u201cDiversity in all its forms is what makes us great. And all of us working together is what helps us advance as a civilization! Thank you for sharing this and bringing visibility to this piece of history, and thank you Gallaudet 11 for your contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The official NASA <\/a>website shared some of the tests<\/a> in which the brave volunteers took part. \u201cOne test saw four subjects spend 12 straight days inside a 20-foot slow rotation room, which remained in a constant motion of ten revolutions per minute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, of course, there were the zero-g flights. \u201cIn another scenario, subjects participated in a series of zero-g flights in the notorious \u2018Vomit Comet\u2019 aircraft to understand connections between body orientation and gravitational cues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They even took the volunteers to Nova Scotia to test big waves. \u201cAnother experiment, conducted in a ferry off the coast of Nova Scotia, tested the subjects\u2019 reactions to the choppy seas. While the test subjects played cards and enjoyed one another\u2019s company, the researchers themselves were so overcome with seasickness that the experiment had to be canceled. The Gallaudet test subjects reported no adverse physical effects and, in fact, enjoyed the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The test subjects themselves shared their experiences. Barron Gulak reminisced, \u201cIn retrospect, yes, it was scary\u2026but at the same time we were young and adventurous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHouston had a problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The tests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were young and adventurous\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n