Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, episode 269, Locked

in Pressure Low.

I'm Pat Ryan.

On this podcast, we talk with scientists, engineers, astronauts, and other folks about

their part in America's space exploration program.

And today we're going to learn about plans to prevent future astronauts on the moon and

Mars from suffering from the bends.

For puny human bodies, need to breathe air, and our normal air is about 78% nitrogen

and 21% oxygen, and some other stuff.

Under less than normal atmospheric pressure, nitrogen can dissolve out of your blood and

form bubbles inside your body.

It's called decompression sickness, and having those bubbles inside your body can lead potentially

to any number of painful conditions of your joints, lungs, heart, skin, or brain.

The reduced pressure situations that can lead to this condition include scuba diving,

or high altitude events, or being an astronaut, walking in space, or on the surface of the

moon, or Mars.

Over the dozens and dozens of years that men and women have been walking in space, we've

developed protocols to prevent this from happening.

Well, today, scientists and engineers are focused on learning how to prevent it from

happening in the particular atmospheric pressure regimens we'll encounter when astronauts

will walk on the moon and on Mars.

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