[BlindTlk] No More Mixed Messages, Was Fwd: [tech-vi Announce List] Who can be an astronaut? Accessible spaceships may be the future - Inverse

[David Andrews]

Bryan, over the years, you have posted countless 
negative messages on this, and other nfbnet.org 
lists. I understand that things haven't always 
gone the way you would have liked, but part of 
the reason you are so miserable is that you are so miserable!

Dave

At 02:26 PM 8/2/2021, you wrote:
>Hi, You have stirred the pot many times in the 
>last six months and you're going to blast me for 
>this one comment?? Unless people wanting to 
>become autonomous vehicle owners have a few 
>million dollars laying around, they aren't going 
>to be autonomous vehicle owners plus we're not 
>even talking about having insurance or a drivers 
>license yet! Bryan -----Original Message----- 
>From: BlindTlk <blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On 
>Behalf Of Peter Donahue via BlindTlk Sent: 
>Monday, August 2, 2021 2:14 PM To: 'Blind Talk 
>Mailing List' <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> Cc: 
>pmdonahue2 at gmail.com Subject: [BlindTlk] No More 
>Mixed Messages, Was Fwd: [tech-vi Announce List] 
>Who can be an astronaut? Accessible spaceships 
>may be the future - Inverse Good afternoon 
>everyone,  Out of respect for budding blind 
>autonomous vehicle owners and blind astronauts 
>dream stealing on these lists needs to stop. I 
>as the parent of a blind child would not take 
>kindly to someone on one of these lists feeding 
>any blind child or adult the kind of junk like 
>what appears below. People come to the NFB to 
>hear a positive philosophy of blindness and to 
>learn they can live the lives they want and that 
>blindness need not stop them. We have been to 
>local chapter meetings and other NFB gatherings 
>and heard so-called "Federationists" dash the 
>dreams and hopes of members that came to the 
>organization for help. There's a term for that. 
>It's called "Mixed messaging" and shouldn't be 
>tolerated by anyone in the organization at any 
>level. When we attend NFB activities the message 
>had better be the same. Statements like Brian's 
>have no place in this organization even if they 
>are personal opinions. Before airing such 
>opinions consider their impact on those wanting 
>to blaze new trails for all blind people. It 
>would be nice if mixed messaging during NFB 
>events would be addressed in the code of 
>conduct. This is a reason why we're happy to be 
>members at large. We've observed too much mixed 
>messaging in the organization and won't tolerate 
>it in our presence! Peter Donahue -----Original 
>Message----- From: BlindTlk 
><blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Bryan 
>Schulz via BlindTlk Sent: Monday, August 2, 2021 
>12:08 PM To: 'Blind Talk Mailing List' 
><blindtlk at nfbnet.org> Cc: Bryan Schulz 
><b.schulz at sbcglobal.net> Subject: Re: [BlindTlk] 
>Fwd: [tech-vi Announce List] Who can be an 
>astronaut? Accessible spaceships may be the 
>future - Inverse Hi, Yea, just right around the 
>corner like the nfb car. Bryan -----Original 
>Message----- From: BlindTlk 
><blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of 
>Ericka via BlindTlk Sent: Monday, August 2, 2021 
>9:40 AM To: Blind Mailing List 
><blindtlk at nfbnet.org>; Nfb Wisconsin 
><nfbwnews at googlegroups.com>; 
>NFBDaneCounty at groups.io Cc: Ericka 
><dotwriter1 at gmail.com> Subject: [BlindTlk] Fwd: 
>[tech-vi Announce List] Who can be an astronaut? 
>Accessible spaceships may be the future - 
>Inverse Thought this was just plain cool! Ericka 
>Nelson Begin forwarded message: > From: David 
>Goldfield <david.goldfield at outlook.com> > Date: 
>July 31, 2021 at 10:27:25 AM CDT > To: 
>tech-vi at groups.io > Subject: [tech-vi Announce 
>List] Who can be an astronaut? Accessible > 
>spaceships may be the future - Inverse > 
>Reply-To: tech-vi at groups.io > >  > 
>"Accessibility" - Google News - Thursday, July 
>29, 2021 at 2:07 PM > > Who can be an astronaut? 
>Accessible spaceships may be the future - > 
>Inverse > > Betsy Furler describes the idea of 
>astronauts with disabilities as a dream come 
>true. > > “Imagine you are a child with a 
>disability, and all of a sudden you see, ‘Oh, 
>I could be an astronaut,’” Furler tells 
>Inverse. “What a boost in your confidence and 
>leveling of the playing field just with what 
>your dreams can be.” > > Furler is an 
>accessibility consultant who advocates for the 
>inclusion of people with disabilities. Her 
>reaction is appropriate, given the response to 
>an announcement made by the European Space 
>Agency earlier this year. > > In February, the 
>ESA sent out an unprecedented call for its next 
>generation of astronauts. The group would 
>include people with physical disabilities that 
>would have otherwise excluded them from the 
>chance to explore the cosmos. > > Less than six 
>months later, the space agency has received 
>about 250 applications. > > The ESA’s call was 
>done in parallel with the Parastronaut Fly 
>Feasibility Project to identify what needs to be 
>done to accommodate the astronauts for upcoming 
>missions. > > Since this has never been done 
>before, there are currently a lot of 
>unknowns. > > > Astronauts undergo underwater 
>training for Extravehicular Activities, > where 
>they do handy-work outside of the International 
>Space Station.ESA Lucy Van Der Tas, ESA’s head 
>of talent acquisition, tells Inverse the agency 
>is pre-screening its applications and that 
>“diversity is very much in our DNA.” > > 
>“We feel it's the right thing to do; we wish 
>to be able to include and represent all facets 
>of society,” Van Der Tas says. > > From an 
>innovation perspective, ESA also felt that this 
>was a necessary move. > > A key enabler for 
>innovation > > “Diversity is a key enabler for 
>innovation, and the number of people who go up 
>into space that we can collect biodata on is 
>pretty limited,” Van Der Tas says. > > From 
>the hundreds of people who have gone to space in 
>the past few years, the space agency conducts 
>different tests to see the effect of space 
>travel and microgravity on the human body. The 
>results showed that people’s bodies react 
>differently to the space environment. > > ESA 
>feels a need to include a diverse group of 
>people to conduct these types of 
>experiments. > > “We feel very strongly about 
>this. There’s a sort of an emotional reaction 
>to it,” Van Der Tas says. “But there's also 
>some very good key and hard scientific reasons 
>for doing it.” > > Space agencies like NASA 
>and ESA typically send out a call for astronauts 
>every few years. > > The first astronauts were 
>military personnel with experience flying jet 
>aircraft and had to be shorter than 5 feet 11 
>inches to fit in the spacecraft. > > Since then, 
>the qualifications for astronauts have expanded 
>to include a more diverse range of people. But 
>space still faces a severe diversity problem 
>with the majority of astronauts being white, 
>male, and having a military background. > > Of 
>the 562 people who have flown to space, just 65 
>have been women. > > Applicants generally have 
>to have a degree in science, technology, 
>mathematics, or engineering (STEM). > > There 
>are additional physical requirements such as 
>near 20/20 vision, blood pressure lower than 
>140/90, and a height between 62 and 75 
>inches. > > But people with physical 
>disabilities were never allowed to make the 
>cut. > > > ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet during 
>his spacewalk training at NASA’s > Neutral 
>Buoyancy Lab in Houston, USA.ESA The last time 
>ESA put out a call for astronaut applications 
>was more than ten years ago, and it received 
>8,413 applicants. That pool produced a total of 
>six astronauts for the class of 2009. > > 
>According to ESA, this year, the number of 
>applicants more than doubled to 22,589 
>applicants, and 24 percent of the applicants are 
>women. The space agency is looking for four to 
>six astronauts and one astronaut with a physical 
>disability and a reserve of about 20 
>astronauts. > > “I’d like to see more, but 
>this is already a big signal that [becoming an] 
>astronaut is no longer the hardcore male 
>domain,” Van Der Tas says. > > “Spaceflight 
>is quite dangerous” > > Astronauts perform 
>various physical activities such as walking, 
>running, crouching, crawling, and swimming. 
>Flight training also includes undergoing 
>conditions in a microgravity environment. > > 
>Depending on the type of disability, space 
>agencies would have to find alternative ways to 
>make those physical activities more accessible 
>for astronauts with disabilities. > > As of now, 
>the agency is still unsure what kind of 
>technical adaptations would need to take place 
>to allow for flight, but they’re hoping to 
>learn more through the feasibility project. Part 
>of the project is consulting with spaceflight 
>providers to analyze what measurements need to 
>be made. > > The physical requirements for those 
>getting onboard spacecraft have pretty much 
>remained the same over the years, with a slight 
>increase of the height limit to include taller 
>people. As a result, spacecraft have been 
>modified to accommodate that height 
>difference. > > For this particular project, ESA 
>will include astronauts below 130 centimeters 
>(4’2”) in height. Therefore, they may be 
>adjusting the size of the spacecraft. Another 
>adjustment would consist of the way astronauts 
>anchor themselves while in microgravity. > > 
>Today, astronauts use their feet to anchor 
>themselves, but the space agency is looking into 
>other ways for people to keep steady during 
>spaceflight. > > “Spaceflight is quite 
>dangerous, and we want to make it as safe as 
>possible,” Van Der Tas says. > > The project 
>also does not guarantee flight for the 
>applicants seeing as how there are still many 
>unknowns, but it does aim for future inclusion 
>of astronauts with disabilities in the space 
>program. > > “Well, fingers crossed that the 
>person who is selected to support it actually 
>gets to fly because this is really what it's all 
>about,” Van Der Tas says. “At this point, 
>although we've done some preparatory work, we 
>don't actually know how long it's going to take 
>to make these adjustments.” > > But for Van 
>Der Tas and others who are part of the space 
>industry, it’s about seeing a more inclusive 
>future of space travel. > > “I’m a bit of a 
>sci-fi nerd, so I would like spaceflight to 
>become part of our daily lives,” Van Der Tas 
>says. “I’d like to see it accessible to far 
>more people.” > > Furler would like to see 
>more awareness of the value that people with 
>disabilities can bring. > > “We're all 
>starting to embrace more differences, and we 
>need to start embracing differences in the way 
>we do things, whether that's the way we think or 
>the way we move through the world,” Furler 
>says. > > 
>https://www.inverse.com/science/being-astronaut-is-no-longer-a-hardcor  
> > e-male-domain > > > >      David Goldfield > 
>Assistive Technology Specialist > > Feel free to 
>visit my Web site > WWW.DavidGoldfield.info > 
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