Mission: AstroAccess project led by UC San Diego conducts a zero-gravity flight to observe how people with different disabilities navigate and communicate in a weightless environment.
Researchers from the University of California (UC) San Diego have recently launched a project that aims to enable inclusive space exploration for people with disabilities. Dubbed Mission: AstroAccess, the project brought together a group of twelve disabled scientists, veterans, students, athletes and artists to experience being in a zero-gravity environment. According to the team, the project aimed to observe how different disabilities would look in a weightless, microgravity environment like space. The project was officially led by a group of scientists, engineers, and social workers with the shared aim of inclusive space exploration.
“The whole point of this project is to demonstrate that people with disabilities are able to fly safely into space,” said Dr. Erik Viirre, director of The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at the University of California San Diego and a neurologist at UC San Diego Health.
Brenda Williamson, an engineering student at UC San Diego, spearheaded the logistics committee to ensure that the launch was a success. According to Williamson, these kinds of student opportunities have enabled her to prepare for and pursue her career goals.
“My whole career goal is to make the average person able to go to outer space, where you don’t have to be a crazy trained astronaut with impeccable physical abilities and health to visit outer space,” she said. “I grew up on Star Trek, so the idea of exploration is really important to me.”
The inaugural parabolic flight was conducted on October 17, 2021, in Long Beach, California aboard a plane outfitted with a dedicated padded section where the research took place. The plane flew up to an altitude of approximately 32,000 feet before beginning a rapid descent at about 4 miles per second. This free-fall creates a microgravity environment that lasts about 30 seconds, before the plane then climbs back up to a stable altitude where it repeats the process. According to the team behind Mission: Astro Access, the plane performed this 15 times during this initial flight. The flight was done in partnership with the Zero Gravity Corporation (Zero-G), a Florida-based aerospace company that conducts weightless flights for both tourists and researchers.
The AstroAccess crew members who were part of the flight included twelve people with disabilities, dubbed Ambassadors: four people who are blind or possess low-vision, two people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and six people with a mix of mobility disabilities. Each Ambassador member was tasked with carrying out different challenges and activities while in a weightless environment.
One of the tasks was determining whether the crew members would be able to perform basic safety and operational tasks such as navigating towards oxygen masks. They were also tested to see whether sound beacons could help blind members better orient themselves, as well as the effectiveness of haptic devices when communicating commands. The team is currently working on how American Sign Language will be impacted by microgravity.
“What we’re working on in this initial flight are demonstrations of a variety of different tasks that our Ambassadors will have to carry out, including navigating up, down, left and right; clear communication; and being able to move to a set location,” shared Viirre.
Working in microgravity environments demands a more rigorous understanding of physiology and how the human body is ultimately affected. By exploring its effects on persons with disabilities, the team behind AstroAccess is hoping to make both the STEM and space field accessible to more people. As of today, only 8.4 percent of scientists and engineers in the United States are people with disabilities.
“We still have lots of things to learn about traveling in space,” said Viirre. “Our destiny really is out there.”
AstroAccess is already planning on conducting more parabolic flights following the success of its inaugural launch.
For more information, visit the Mission: AstroAccess official website.