Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 124, The Human Element.

I'm Gary Jordan.

I'll be your host today.

On this podcast, we bring in the experts,

scientists, engineers, astronauts, all to let you know

what's going on in the world of human spaceflight. So this is part two of our

six-part series on the human research program. So far you've heard an overview of the five elements of the human research program

and the massive coordinated effort it takes to discover the best methods and technologies

to support safe, productive human space travel.

Today we're going to focus on the human factors. safe productive human space travel.

Today we're going to focus on the human factors and behavioral performance

element, the element responsible for identifying and mitigating human factors and behavioral

performance risks that come along with living and working in space,

and of course returning safely to Earth.

Human factors being the integration of human and machine, in a sense, and behavioral performance being to maximize what astronauts can do in space.

So going into the details of this element is Aaron Alcorn, element manager, and Dr Thomas Williams Element Scientist.

Dr Thomas Williams goes by Tom.

Each element of the Human Research Program has an Element Manager that handles the project costs and schedules and the technical work and the resources

and also has an element scientist, the individual responsible for integrating and coordinating the science.

So here we go.

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