How Does NASA Test Health Responses to Pressure Changes Astronauts Experience in Space?

Have your ears ever popped when taking off for a flight? Astronauts experience a similar feeling when launching, landing, and exiting an airlock ahead of a spacewalk. To better understand and test these pressure changes, volunteers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center live and work inside a 20-foot pressurized chamber for extended periods of time. Their work takes a closer look at how the human body and its functions—performance, cognition, and overall health—react and adapt to changes in pressure. Insights will help NASA design future spacewalk protocols, spacesuits, vehicles, and habitats as we venture onward to the Moon and Mars.

What is said in the film

You know that feeling you get when you're taking off for a flight and your ears pop? Astronauts experience something similar, and not just when they launch and land. They also get the same feeling when exiting an airlock for a spacewalk. Pressure on the International Space Station is set to roughly match Earth's at sea level, but any time astronauts transition into their spacesuits or a vehicle or a habitat, there may be a change in the air pressure around the astronaut. That's where NASA's 20-foot chamber comes in.

Here, volunteers live and work inside pressurized chambers, sometimes for as long as two weeks. This facility allows researchers to study how the human body reacts and adapts to the changes in pressure. Scientists also test different combinations of atmospheric gases you breathe every day, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. They're looking at how pressure changes and breathing different mixtures of gases affect volunteers performance, cognitive function, and overall health. Insights will help inform NASA's thinking for future spacewalk protocols, spacesuits, space vehicles and habitat designs.

Through each chamber study here on Earth, NASA hopes to bring us closer to stepping foot back on the Moon and preparing us for the long journey to Mars.

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