Scott Carpenter Helium Phone Call

[Silavite]

I was reading about Scott Carpenter when I discovered an interesting (and funny!) tidbit.

Quote

A sidenote from SEALAB II was a congratulatory telephone call that was arranged for Carpenter and President Lyndon B. Johnson. Carpenter was calling from a decompression chamber with helium gas replacing nitrogen, so Carpenter sounded unintelligible to operators.^[10] The tape of the call circulated for years among Navy divers before it was aired on NPR in 1999.

Enjoy!

 

[cubinator]

Operators were not engineers...  

[NSEP]

Makes me wonder, would future astronauts in the age of space colonization replace the nitrogen with helium gas in their pressurized chambers one day just to mess with mission control/themselves?

[cubinator]

8 minutes ago, NSEP said:

Makes me wonder, would future astronauts in the age of space colonization replace the nitrogen with helium gas in their pressurized chambers one day just to mess with mission control/themselves?

I don't know about helium, but a tank of sulfur hexafluoride would provide perfect Darth Vader voices for all onboard.

[Gargamel]

1 hour ago, NSEP said:

Makes me wonder, would future astronauts in the age of space colonization replace the nitrogen with helium gas in their pressurized chambers one day just to mess with mission control/themselves?

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but you get the bends from Nitrogen returning to gaseous form in your body where it shouldn't, namely the joints.  I believe the Helium does not do this, which is why deep/long duration divers use HeliOx as a breathing gas instead of regular air.  So unless they want to be really dedicated to the joke, I doubt it.  

Annnd I misread the post.... nevermind, carry on!. 

Edited October 20, 2018 by Gargamel

[YNM]

14 hours ago, NSEP said:

replace the nitrogen with helium gas in their pressurized chambers

Don't think you want to waste so much precious gasses tbh. (Helium is expensive and scarce.)

Edited October 21, 2018 by YNM

[Kernel Kraken]

11 hours ago, YNM said:

Don't think you want to waste so much precious gasses tbh. (Helium is expensive and scarce.)

Replicators!

[0111narwhalz]

4 hours ago, Kernel Kraken said:

Replicators!

Fusion reactors!