Un champion PARALYMPIQUE bientôt dans l'espace 🏆🌌

Amazing delivery from Paralympic medal-winning astronaut John McFarlane. Paralympic Games have just started, and personally, I find it even more impressive than the classic games. Amputated people, wheelchair users, or vision disorders, a number of disabilities are represented. And today, one of these Paralympic champions can achieve what has never been done before. Become a parastronaut. It's this man right here. His name is John McFarlane. He was a bronze medalist at the Beijing Games in 2008, and he has just been selected by the European Space Agency to dream of the impossible. Be the first parastronaut in history. But his race to the stars has not yet been won. I'll explain that to you in this new YouTube video. Hi, I'm Chloé. I've been passionate about space since I was 15. And at 18, I imagined becoming an astronaut one day. Since then, I've been writing in newspapers all the things I accomplished that would one day allow me to get closer to this dream. And on December 21, 2020, everything changed. That day, I lost sight of my left eye. When I opened the door of my fridge, a bottle of champagne fell and exploded on the floor. A piece of glass followed its trajectory to pierce my eye. After several operations, I was able to keep my eye, but I only see 30%, which does not allow me to pass the medical qualification to fly a plane, for example. Following this accident, there is of course a physical convalescence, but also the mourning of a dream of becoming, one day, myself an astronaut. In the media, I was usually presented as the young girl from EPFL, who was aiming for the moon and who might one day be in space. But I no longer found myself in this image that did not match the person I had become. Because even if becoming an astronaut is already a difficult goal to achieve, with this handicap, it had become impossible. Being an astronaut is being physically impeccable, superhuman. At least, that's how you represent it when you think of the movie The Right Stuff or the profile of the first American astronauts. Recently, I was reading the book of Thomas Pesquet, where he goes into detail about his recruitment and his training. And he told the story of a Russian astronaut who particularly touched me. Nikolai Tikhonov. This cosmonaut, after 14 years of training and waiting, saw his dream go up in smoke 6 months before his first flight. In fact, his story speaks to me particularly because he took a branch in the eye for 2 nights. And after that, he will never regain his medical aptitude. Yeah, apparently the sight is really important in this job. But when I heard about this project of Lesa's parastronaut, hope sprang up. Tomorrow, it could be different. And that's why this video really has a special meaning for me, and I hope it will speak to you too. 3 years ago, the European Space Agency changed the game by proposing a totally unethical feasibility study. The parastronaut project. But what is a parastronaut? It is someone who meets all the criteria to be an astronaut, whether at the level of education or technical skills, but who does not meet the medical conditions. Like Bibi. For this first selection, Lesa still set certain criteria. All disabilities were not accepted. To be precise, it was necessary to have a part of where the legs are amputated, under the knee at most, be small, below 1.30m, and a significant difference in size between his legs. But why these disabilities in particular? They categorized the different disabilities by maintaining basic safety constraints. Like for example, the astronaut had to be able to read procedures or visual indicators. He must also be able to express himself verbally and move independently once in terrestrial orbit. Some think that the selection is still too restrictive and Lesa could have pushed these choices even further. But we'll talk about that later. Following this call, 257 people from the European Space Agency And after a similar but adapted selection, as for the titular astronauts, one person came out of the water. This is John. John is a reserve astronaut representing the United Kingdom. At the age of 43, he was selected to study whether people with disabilities could enter space. And we understand, John McFaul is someone. At the age of 19, John is the victim of a motorcycle accident that will cost him part of his right leg. But that won't stop him, in every way. Because in 2005, he became a professional athlete. He won the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics for the 100m. He will also become world champion several times for the 100m and 200m races. And like all that, it's not enough anyway. John will also study medicine, and in particular surgery. His specialty is orthopedic and traumatic surgery. Nothing more. If that's not the right stuff, I don't know what it is. And you, tell me what you think in the comments, and don't hesitate to subscribe if you want more topics about space. Because what is the right stuff, actually? Surviving in space, even if it can make you dream, it's still dangerous. We'll remind you, it's living in a small, enclosed environment, surrounded by literally nothing at all, in microgravity, with extreme temperatures, debris in orbit, and a modified circadian cycle. Anyway, you have to call George Clooney to live there, a priori. Or at least, that's what we tended to think at the historical level. You have to select exceptional people, whether at the medical level or intellectual and physical abilities. That's why medical standards are very high. And in addition, they evolve according to the status of the astronaut. If he is in preparation, during launch, on long or short missions, etc. In the 50s and 60s, we were looking for men, for the most part, military pilots, who would meet these constraints. Even women were not considered the right stuff. Fortunately, the Soviets were there to send the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963. Even if it didn't really represent the equality of gender in the country of the time. After that, it will take 19 years for a woman to be sent again, after 171 men. When it comes to people in a handicap situation, history is relatively short on this subject. We can mention the NASA astronaut Leland Melvin, who after an accident during a training, lost part of his nose. This did not prevent him from flying again twice with the space shuttle, but once he came back to full capacity. His TED talk also says the right stuff is the never give up stuff. Today, we still feel this lack of diversity, although we have made progress. But we remain very limited by our own limiting beliefs. At the time, it was the belief that women were too weak for a space trip. And now? Maybe it's time to redefine what is a handicap and if it really makes sense when we find ourselves in an environment that is not made for humans. Well, let's get back to our onions. The final goal of the para-astronaut project would be that John can actually go into space. For the moment, it's not about planning. First of all, we have to study the challenges he would face compared to a typical person and potentially adapt certain infrastructures, like the space suit for example. This is the goal of the feasibility study that ESA has named FLY. Because currently, most space systems are designed for people in good health and sometimes favor men more than women. Toilets, for example, aboard the ISS have recently been changed and are now more adapted to the bodies of the latter. On Earth, the constraints of design and architecture must follow standards of design for all. So why not also in space? For that, analog missions can be a test tool. An analog space mission is a flight simulation but while staying on Earth. It is a tool that space agencies use but there is also a large independent network that conducts and shares its research. Small parenthesis, I myself created an analog space mission with friends called Asclepius. The focus is to simulate a linear village in Switzerland 100% made by students. Analog missions are a little more advanced in this field and have already done a number of research on the inclusion of people in handicapped situations. A consortium has also been created called Paracasm led by a friend named Eleanor. To coordinate the research done in these environments. One has also been a pioneer in the matter, the Lunares station located in Poland. In 2017, they welcomed the first analog parastronaut with vision problems and amputated hand. More recently for the ICARES-3 mission they even received another of my friends Thomas Ducaille who became the first parastronaut in a wheelchair in an analog mission. I am Thomas, I am a wheelchair user studying molecular biology at the University of Vienna and I am very honoured having become the first wheelchair-using analog parastronaut who conducted a mission this year in the analog space habitat in Lunares in Poland. It was an unbelievable experience really once in a lifetime being in a closed base habitat without having contact to outer space to Earth for two weeks being there with five other people five other analog astronauts whom I never met before like with strangers. So it's really important also for let's say non-disabled crew to simulate how to cope with someone who has a disability so kind of the interpersonal relations and strategies how to cope with someone having a disability is also part of the ICARUS three objectives of the Lunares habitat. There were still some challenges like the habitat is designed with like containers which are kind of modules which are very narrow so like for example within the kitchen it was very very difficult to move around and to perform and to cook and to perform the tasks I wouldn't call it in the space context as a disability it could be a special ability. like it would special ability and special abilities and special abilities and special abilities In order to be able to drive These missions allow to test advanced medical technologies that benefit everyone on Earth. These researches and adaptations could also be used by current astronauts. For example, during an extravehicular sortie in 2001, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield was temporarily blinded by a combination of soap and tears inside his helmet. The thing is that the current design of the combinations relies on eye-hand coordination, without thinking about other sensory information. Working with people with vision problems could allow to design more flexible combinations, and also safer, for conventional astronauts. The Parastronaut Fly project is a good first step. But to be more inclusive, it would be necessary to select, for example, not according to the status of the people, in a situation of disability or not, but according to their results, to physical performance tests adapted to work in space. This is the nuanced result of a recent study done by ESA. Because in the end, in space, all human beings have disabilities, right? Because no human being is designed to live in space. And if we rethink our superheroes and superheroines? After all, it is estimated that 15% of the world's population lives with a form of disability. Just being curious, being active. These are very unique and special opportunities, which maybe also people don't know about. But there is, I think, really a way in the room and space for everyone in space.