‘You are Not Leaving Without Us’: Why Disabled Astronauts are Key to Humanity’s Future in Space
upstart writes:
AstroAccess is on a mission to make it possible for disabled people to live and work in space:
"I went silent," Dwayne Fernandes told me. "I shut the hell up." Fernandes, a double-amputee since the age of 11, was recounting his experience in weightlessness, having recently participated in a parabolic flight alongside a disabled research crew. The zero-g flight threw him into a deeply contemplative state, and as the crew celebrated its successful mission, he instead felt compelled to put pen to paper and write some poetry.
Speaking to me from his home in Australia, Fernandes told me that "disability is not just a wheelchair-we need to expand that thinking." Disability, he said, is "a condition plus barriers," which for wheelchair users includes barriers such as height or stairs. But gravity can also be a barrier, as he pointed out.
"On that zero-g flight, I had my condition-the condition stayed-but the barrier went," Fernandes explained. "That became a profound, weird feeling that caused me to re-identify myself. The social model of disability says I'm a person with a disability, but my condition changed in a zero-g environment." When in weightlessness, "I am not disabled-I am actually super enabled."
Elaborating on this point, Fernandes described himself as being "compact" and with "upgradeable parts." Legs "get in the way in space," he said, and, as extra weight, they only serve to increase launch costs. "There's no such thing as a spacewalk," he said. "Your feet aren't walking-your feet are just anchored." All he would need to live and work in space, he said, are "a couple of carabiners and some hooks."
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