WEBVTT - Space Canals 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Nke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:14.440 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.400 the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.119 of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.840 waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.960 In nineteen oh one, a British academic named Charlotte Molberly 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.400 and her assistant Elizabeth Shordan, stepped off a train at 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.159 the Palace of Versailles. The two women had just started 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.080 working together at a women's college in England, and this 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.320 trip was supposed to be an opportunity to get to 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.360 know each other. They walked around the palace for a 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.880 while and found it beautiful but uninspiring, so they decided 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.080 to go out through the garden and explore the a 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.080 pet Trianon, a mansion on the palace grounds, built in 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.560 the seventeen sixties. As they walked through the garden, though, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.440 they missed a turn and got lost, and that's when 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.640 everything started to feel off. Unlike the palace, which was 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:17.600 bustling with tourists, this part of the garden was almost 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.680 completely deserted. There was no one around except for a 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.720 handful of people in old fashioned uniforms and tricorn hats. 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.520 Charlotte assumed that they were workers who were dressed in 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:32.200 period costumes for historical reenactment purposes, but something about them 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.800 didn't seem real. They looked like wax figures who'd been 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.119 brought to life. Up ahead, Elizabeth pointed to an old 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.120 farmhouse with a plow outside that looked like it was 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.680 one hundred years old or more. There was a gardener 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.600 outside of the farmhouse in the same old fashioned costume 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.360 as the other workers, so the woman stopped to ask 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.040 him for directions to the Petit Trianon. The gardener appointed 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.440 them in the right direction, and as they got further 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.559 down the path, Charlotte shivered. She felt like the world 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.080 was lit, literally losing dimension. The trees were flat and 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.520 there were no shadows, as if she were walking through 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:09.480 a painting. She told Elizabeth that she couldn't explain it, 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.760 but she felt a suffocating sense of dreariness and dread. 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.120 Elizabeth raised her eyebrows in alarm and said that she 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.920 too felt the same thing. Finally, they came to the 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.160 Petit triannon, Charlotte saw a young woman in a white 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.640 hat and an old fashioned summer dress sketching a picture 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.560 of the garden, and as she passed, she noticed that 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.560 the woman bore a striking resemblance to the late Queen 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.840 Marie Antoinette. As soon as the women stepped inside the mansion, 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:41.200 the oppressive atmosphere lifted. Everything looked normal again, as if 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.080 a spell had been broken. They looked around the mansion 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.040 for a bit, and then they headed back the same 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.000 way they came, but strangely, on their way back, the 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.640 workers in period clothing that they had countered on their 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.399 way in were nowhere to be seen. Charlotte and Elizabeth 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.440 went back to their hotel, both nursing a strange feeling 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.160 about what had happened that afternoon, but neither of them 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.800 dared to talk about it until months later when they 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.680 were finally back in England, and when they compared their recollections, 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:11.040 they couldn't deny that something odd had occurred that day 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.359 at Versailles. After their trip, Charlotte and Elizabeth went back 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.280 to Versailles several times and tried to trace the path 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.440 they had taken to the Petitria. None but it wasn't there. 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.800 Various landmarks they remember walking past were completely missing, and 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.400 the layout of the garden was entirely different. But after 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.480 looking at historical maps, they realized that the path they'd 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.200 taken that day aligned perfectly with how the gardens were 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.360 laid in the late eighteenth century in the days of 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:43.080 Marie Antoinette. Charlotte was never able to explain exactly what 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:45.520 happened that day, but she lived the rest of her 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:49.680 life convinced that somehow she and Elizabeth had briefly slipped 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.920 back in time to see Versailles, as it was more 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.800 than one hundred years before their own day, and she 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.360 believed that the woman she'd seen sketching in the garden 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:16.680 was none other than Marie Antoinette herself. Six men emerged 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:19.680 from the spinning gray capsule, green in the face and 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.960 clutching their stomachs. Captain Greybiel swore under his breath they 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.160 had only lasted a few hours in the Slow Rotation Room, 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:31.240 a twenty foot circular space mimicking the living quarters of 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.640 future astronauts. Across the large room, his colleagues shook their heads. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.599 Greybiel could easily guess what the problem was insufficient data. 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.440 These men, although eager to help, were too ill for 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.360 scientists to learn anything about long term changes to the 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:50.680 human body in spaceflight. At high G forces, they passed out, 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.320 and at slow rotations, their body lost equilibrium and they 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.279 inevitably became sick. A memory tugged at the back of 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.880 Captain Grabiel's mind, something he had learned in medical school 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.080 or in the Navy's medical academy. There'd been a model 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.560 of the human ear for students to observe, large drawings 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.279 of semi circular canals that made up the vestibular system, 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.359 the part of the human body responsible for balance and 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.880 detecting motion. Graybial thought of the tests that his team 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.040 had already conducted, and he fought back to which volunteers 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.839 were most successful and what set them apart. And then 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.040 an idea came together in his mind. So he sent 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:33.240 a message to Galladet University in Washington, DC, requesting students 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.440 to assist with a test that could very well win 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.640 Americans the space race. Gabriel didn't share his hypothesis with 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.279 the other scientists, but he felt confident that he was 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.480 on the right track. A few days later, another group 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.120 of men sat in the slow Rotation room. An hour passed, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.360 then two scientists outside the SRR were thrilled. So far 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.520 these new volunteers from Galadet were lasting longer than any 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:01.800 others had much much longer. The volunteers from Galadet spent 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.080 a few hours in the SRR the first time, then 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.880 two days. Eventually, the Galadet eleven, as they came to 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:13.120 be called, spent twelve days inside the SRR. Captain grey 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.919 Bial's team was exhausted, overworked, and eager to be done. 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.120 When the door to the SRR was opened, the Galadet 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.679 eleven were sitting calmly inside, playing a game of cards. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.360 If anything, they looked surprised that the time had passed 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:31.359 so quickly. The Galadet eleven went onto ace every test 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:36.280 from the Aerospace Medical Association. The zero gravity simulator, nicknamed 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.840 the vomit Comet Rapid Elevator, rides up the Empire's state 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.520 building with electrodes attached to their eyelids and a machine 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:48.720 literally called the human Disorientation Device. All the while, Greybriel's 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.440 team was getting more data than ever before, which meant 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:55.000 that they were understanding the human body better. Calculations were 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.120 adjusted to account for ease of movement, and the galadet 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.479 eleven gave clear precise feedback on what they felt, the 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:05.159 difficulty of performing some of movements, and the psychological effects 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.560 of extended time in zero gravity. Finally, the most difficult 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.040 test of all arrived. In nineteen sixty four, Ten of 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.200 the galad At eleven boarded a tugboat setting out over 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.680 the Atlantic. Black clouds hung in the stormy sky, but 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.080 grey Bill's team had expected this, They had counted on it. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.480 In fact, they would go on to sail two hundred 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.440 miles of rough seas and dangerous storms in a final 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.960 study of what happened to the human body under extreme conditions. 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.800 Grey Biel's researchers reported forty foot waves, buffeting winds, and 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.360 surges three times the force of gravity. For the experiment, 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.040 the galadet eleven were supposed to provide blood and urine samples, 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:49.040 answer questioneers, and tests of dexterity under physical strain. As 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.920 it happened, the researchers and the boat crew were so 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.200 seasick they had to cancel all the tests. The galad 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.880 At eleven, on the other hand, had a fantastic time. 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.480 They read books, played games and commented on the exciting 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.080 wild ride. So what was it that set these specific 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:09.320 men apart? What superpower allowed them to withstand conditions that 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:14.080 no one else could? The Galadet eleven or deaf. In 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.240 the nineteen fifties, galad At University was one of few 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.280 schools who catered to deaf or heart of hearing students. 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.880 Most of these eleven men had survived spinal meningitis, a 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.400 condition that damaged their vestibular systems. This meant that they 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.800 could no longer hear, and it also meant that they 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.920 were exactly what NASA needed to study the effects of 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.920 deep space travel on the human body. The Galadets eleven 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.400 were more than just test subjects. They took active roles 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.480 in the scientific process. They taught the researchers asl which 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:47.320 could be used to communicate even in a vacuum like 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:52.040 space where sound doesn't travel. One member of the Galadets eleven, though, 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.160 a man named Robert Greenman, actually worked with Captain Gray 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.920 Biel years before the project officially started. He was integral 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.640 to the success of NASA research, but like the rest 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.240 of the galad At eleven, his contributions went unrecognized until 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:09.640 twenty seventeen when galad At University opened and exhibit highlighting 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:14.240 the critical contributions of Greenmund and his peers, and rightly so, 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:16.920 because it's to them that we owe the success of 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.719 every manned spaceflight in American history, all the way from 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:27.920 the Apollo missions to today's Artemis two. I hope you 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.600 enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.000 show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.680 iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.839 and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.960 and the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.200 com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:52.800 official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.800 as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.040 for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.960 all the same story, but without the interruption for a 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.959 small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:10.880 patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.