This was an incredible opportunity. I decided to go all in and discuss everything in detail. How do you feel about a Long Form Smarter Every Day video? Thank you again to everyone who support on Patreon at patreon.com/smartereveryday ! You let me make what I want instead of what I think the algorithm wants me to make!

Hey Destin, thank you again for visiting our facility. Sorry I couldn’t be in the water with you, but it was a pleasure meeting you the day before. As always it’s awesome to have someone share the work we do when trying to get us back to the moon! Hope you visit again soon!

Destin! I’m the guy looking in your ears! Such a pleasure to meet you and have you come to our amazing facility again!

Thank you Destin for making this video and bringing back loving memories. I'm now 81 years old but back in the 60's I was working at MSFC in Huntsville doing Zero G simulations in the MSFC simulators. Besides under water, we had a 5 degree of freedom simulator (no up and down) and a 6 degree of simulator. This was a genius of design but a mechanical nightmare. It was located in Bldg 4755 on the top floor. An air bearing surface was prepared on the floor with self leveling epoxy in which two sets of air bearings were on each side of a large square hole cut in the floor. A spreader beam stretched across the opening and was supported by the air bearings. A single metal pole hung in the middle down to near the floor below and was supported by adjustable negator springs that provided constant force with extension (think metal measuring tape that has spring recoil). This allowed for up and down movement. At the bottom of this pole was a seat similar to a large bicycle seat supported inside a gimble mechanism similar to a kids gyro which allowed roll, pitch, and yaw. From the seat support was located an exo-skeleton for arms, legs, and back support. Everything was zeroed out just like you described in the video for underwater using weights and adjustments. Believe me, it was a sight to behold.. One day we had to put on a demonstration for several dignitaries and a couple of reporters. I was the test subject that day wearing an Apollo Moon suit with a simulated moon surface (spray urethane foam) to walk on. The techs had spent most of the morning getting everything perfect. All went well till this lady in the crowd asked me to see how high I could jump. No problem, I put all I had into it and made a fantastic jump, except I got over my center of mass and came down just like the astronauts did on the moon except more on my head. I was not able to get up without help.. The only good thing was that I couldn't hear them laughing. We had the Lunar module assembly, Skylab assembly, and many test programs underwater for testing. One of the most interesting was a study preformed by GE at the MSFC facility called HEMAR (Human Engineering, Maintenance and Repair) underwater. That was a study to determine the limits of working in a spacesuit such as forces one could exert in a tethered and un-tethered state. This program ran for several weeks and involved a range of percentiles. I was a 50 percentile. I believe data from this study is still being used today. During the early work we were forced to use Air Force pressure suits, which when pressurized presented a sitting position with arms positioned to the controls of an aircraft (slightly bent at the elbow. We got the Apollo suits when we started doing Lunar work. They called this suit a constant volume suit and it was pretty much that, unless one of the interior restraint cables broke, in which it would try to rip you arm out at the sholder. I noticed that those subjects in the newer NBS had a platform to lower and raise them into the water. We only had a platform in the early days that allowed your head to remain above the surface. We had to climb out of that using a ladder, with something like 200 lbs of lead weight. Glad to see that improvement.

I wish Destin could go to the ISS. And I know what he would say - he would say “there are people who spend their careers preparing to go to space” and he wouldn’t want to take a spot from them. But Destin - you’re a really, really smart guy, but you’re still enough of an “Everyman” and you’re a great communicator. It would be fascinating to get to see you document the experience.

Pat wearing the cap backwards underwater is one of the coolest diving outfits I've ever seen.

Really phenomenal video Destin, now I find myself looking up what they're using for the regolith simulant in the pool because I suspect they want something denser than good old fashioned sand.

Man, it irritates me so much how UKposts has conditioned UKpostsrs to think that long form videos are a bad thing... I often skip videos from people I really like just because they're too short and I don't feel like they're going to be worth my time.

Having watched the first moon landing live on TV as a kid this was one of the best things I have watched ever since. Great job.

The safety diver doing the shocked face with her hands when the astronaut fell over felt very sweet and I cant really explain why

Thanks for having the courage to buck the short-video trend and publish what felt like a documentary. So exciting you got to do all that cool stuff!

1:03:40 I *love* that moment of victory that diver shares with the astronaut, that joy, cheer, and flex! Wonderfully encouraging and sweet!

Hey Destin, it was fun to dive with you! It’s always fun being able to see a run, especially the lunar runs we’ve been doing. If you haven’t seen an ISS EVA run in the pool, they’re also really cool! Always a pleasure to have someone show off what we do, hope we see you again!

Diving wearing a baseball cap is probably the most American thing I have seen in a while 😂

I think it's awesome that you get to do these things Destin, and thanks for sharing them with us! Keep it up!!

Thanks for another great video! Love the long in depth videos, much better than short format videos!

Watching the Apollo guys struggling to walk around will never fail to bring a smile to my face. They're like toddlers all over again trying to figure out walking. The little giggles as they fall is absolutely adorable

Hey Destin! Absolutely fantastic video. Thanks for the feature during Bresnik’s fall and recovery. I didn’t expect my audible reaction to be picked up - that’s pretty cool! This is one of my favorite UKposts videos ever. Go team!

The NBL is such an amazing facility and the people there are top notch, thanks for sharing it with us!

I don't know what I like more from you, all the kwnoledge you share or your sheer excitement and how well you transmit it ^^

Been following this channel since I was 13 years old, and now I’m about to graduate from college with my BS in biology. Thank you for everything Destin.

"I know the video is long but it's worth it" Destin, we love long videos

Fascinating! Thanks to all involved!

Thanks for a very special treat! I really enjoyed this!

Pat was my Primary Instructor for my PADI Open and Advanced Open Water certifications. It's absolutely wild seeing him here and getting a better picture of his role in the program at the NBL. Thank you for this! I feel smarter today.

Firefighter here. That stable position 1:10:03 is one of our standard positions. I was wondering if at any point a conversation was has about interdisciplinary evaluation. We train for SCBA maneuvering which is very different but has some helpful overlap.

Hi Destin - My father worked at JSC from 1962 - 1996. He eventually being head of a spacesuit reliability division. Your videos have inspired me to go to NASA to learn more about what my father did and make a UKposts channel about it. Thanks.

Thanks for sharing all this cool info & footage!

I'll preface this comment by saying it's POSITVE. I've been waiting for the rest of the Coast Guard deep dive series for YEARS now. It's pretty clear why that isn't out yet. Destin just keeps getting to do cool stuff. So much that he can't even get videos out fast enough. So jealous! Can't wait to see what you do next.

The way you treat the camera like an actual person in the room and get others (who probably aren’t used to being in front of a camera like this) to be comfortable on tape and be able to be the best version of themselves is just awesome. Notice it all the time but really feel it’s on wonderful display here like it was during the Kodak series. You’re so kind and genuine. Really enjoy your content and what you do. Thank you.

Destin, awesome video. At 1:02:00, it’s interesting to observe the effect caused by the loss of friction. As you know, friction = coefficient of friction times the Normal force, with 1/6 weight -> 1/6 normal force, you would have 1/6 friction. Your feet won’t stick to the ground the same as on earth. When Randy is first trying to get up, his left foot looks like it can’t get any traction, the fact he’s on sand doesn’t help, but it seems similar to ice. So, you not only have to lean farther forward to walk, but your feet are more likely to go out from under you. It must have been a little irritating the first couple times in the pool. By the way, I graduate next month with my BSME, thanks for all the videos you’ve made. They really pique my interest and give me a lot to think about and relate to things I’ve been learning over the last couple of years.

I got a tour of the NBL when i was 15, such a neat place. So jealous that you got to dive through part of a ISS mock up, that is an incredible experience! Thanks for this incredible video Destin!

As an engineering tech for the Navy, I like these longer, behind the scenes videos. It gives some insite not to what we do but why. Thanks Destin.

The 'lunar walk' segment of the video got me thinking that we all went through that training when we're toddlers! We tried to get up from our crawling positions to figure out our CoG to stay upright. Sometimes we fell on our knees and hands, sometimes we tipped over backwards. Our family around us cheered us on just like the divers. Eventually all the data collected became muscle memory for us and we went on to do more impressive things like running, dancing, sports and gymnastics. Thank you immensely for making this video Destin!! Top notch content!

I'm not even 3 minutes in and I'm already so stoked to be watching. The subject matter is cool as heck but more importantly, it's Destin's genuine excitement and humility that's had me watching for all these years. Easily one of my favorite channels on UKposts.

This is why I love the internet. Last minute I was watching cat memes, now I’m watching astronauts trying on new suit at NASA. Amazing times to be alive.

I am old enough to have watched the Mercury launches on black and white TV. I’m an engineer who has studied aviation and space technology for 50 years. But the simple explanation in this video of the mass, weight, and CG problem was an eye opener for me. I always wondered about the awkward motions on the moon. It’s obvious when it’s explained so well. Thanks.

46:55 - "This is a lot bigger than what Neil and Buzz went to the moon in." Heck, the airlock alone in HLS is probably bigger than the whole Apollo LM pressurized volume.

49:55 Unintentional but very funny pun, talking about handling pressure at the neutral buoyancy lab. : D

This explanation about the bend and how nitrogen builds up in the body is THE best explanation I’ve ever seen. This immediately makes sense. Thank you for all you do ❤

“This gets complicated, so obviously we should use a flannel graph” 😂 What a classic statement! And what a winner video - yes please, long format 👍

Your revelation to us that you were potentially going to be an astronaut. Was literally jaw dropping. Anyone that consistently watches your work knows how smart you are and everything you show off but that’s like next level

Great video! All the interesting engineering details that not everyone is aware of

Wow! I could watch stuff like this all day long. So interesting 😊

Seeing the starship mock up in the pool just got me so excited and just helped reaffirm how real this is

I'm very happy with the long format. There are some channels i would not watch for that long, but your content and delivery of that content make the time go by too fast. I vote for detailed long format videos. As a long time diver (53 years diving), former instructor and former cave diving instructor it was interesting to see the detailed discussion of center of buoyancy and center of gravity. I'm in the middle of setting up a new camera housing with lights and it is incredibly difficult to get those centers lined up on a small scale without the cameras "arms and leg" position also being variable. i completely enjoyed the video!

I absolutely love hearing really smart people talk about their jobs. Thank you Destin and everyone involved.

Amazing video! Might be the best one I've watched on youtube. Keep on going!

19:57 this I appreciate this so much. I constantly feel as though others lives are more put together than mine when I see something as simple as a clean room like that. Nobody is perfect and I have to remind myself that.

This video actually got me teary eyed for some reason. Maybe it's the love and dedication of everyone involved, the feeling of humanity pacing towards the futures, the feeling of exploration. Superb video and operation!

Many times I've watched the video of the astronauts on the moon jumping around. Not ounce have I ever heard or knew about fighting the suits center of gravity. Makes sense how difficult it can be.

1:02:15 That "oh no" extression from the diver warmed my heart

Oh my god, You're the first and only one I've seen talking about, or let alone using a flannelograph for anything in modern days. I tend to joke about bringing the flannelograph back and using it at work for office stuff. And You actually did, applause for that! Ten points out of ten, and I haven't even seen all of this video yet. Keep up the good work, Destin!

Behind the scenes as NASA, love it. Years ago in the 90’s my 4th grade teacher’s husband was a Shuttle engineer and he was able to arrange for us a very cool field trip to Kennedy space center inside the large building, and we also got to see the shuttle simulator. He also brought cool stuff from NASA to the school to show for show and tell. It solidified my love for rocketry and space flight.

This was such an amazing video. A testament to the brilliance of human engineering

Best ever Dustin! Thanks NASA. WILLIE

beyond all the fascinating science and engineering, the people that Destin gets to meet and the excitement they get to share with him, and us by extension, is probably my favorite hallmark of this channel.

In the 60s we went to the moon in a Honda Civic. In the 2030s, we'll go back in a small apartment with an attached garage. As a 30 year old space nerd kid, I'm so excited so much is happening in space these days. We sent a helicopter to Mars people!

Took me a few sessions to get through, but great episode!

1hr17mins of pure bliss

This ticks all my boxes. I'm a diver. I also applied to become an astronaut and was rejected. I'm super excited for the Artemis program. Destin, thanks for letting us come along for the ride and experience these moments with you! We're witnessing the making of history here, the first steps to establishing a permanent presence on the Moon. Just fantastic!

Destin, if you where amazed by this, i'd suggest you try and visit a saturation diving complex... these people dive at 250 meters deep, and they stay at that pressure for up to a month, they obey another different set of rules than the recreational diver instructors in this NBL lab, they don't decompress from nitrogen, they decompress from helium, i mean, a total different set of deco tables, they use something like 5% oxygen (1,4ppo2), 5% nitrogen, 90% helium, and they do it with a closed circuit from bottom to diving bell to surface boat back down to diving bell to diver at bottom to reuse the helium, with hard hats and warm water suits... it's amazingly complex, way more than space if you remove the rocket... it takes longer to take a diver from working pressure at 250 meters, 25 bar, to the surface, than from space to the surface, it's a more hostile environment deep deep down than out of space.

this man always blows my mind

Hey Destin, this video is incredible. Around 1:12:50 ish, you were talking about reasons for why the ISS is at 1 atm. The ISS is a short reentry away from the surface, so in the case of an emergency, the astronauts being acclimated to earth’s atmospheric pressure makes sense, however, your video helped me realize that this constraint doesn’t need to be held for the moon because of its distance/increased time. Thank you for helping me make that connection!!

When you see a new SED video, you stop what you're doing and watch it. It's just what you do...

I love how an hour and twenty minute SED video feels like a 20 minute video from any other creator. This was excellent and fascinating and I am excited for the future.

so amazing. thank you

This is a very informative and fascinating video. This triggered long ago memories of going on site at JCC with my dad who was a structural engineer who worked there starting in 1964. He was part of the team that designed the original pool on the JSC site that was in a round building that once held a centrifuge for training. He was part of the team designing the crane that lifted items in and out of the pool. So, mentioning the crane triggered a memory. My dad took my siblings and I on site to see this part of his work. I remember the crane was moved around the pool on a track that circled the building. My dad was also part of the designing of a later pool, I am not sure if it was this NBL lab or another on site. I remember he got a call at home during that time that made him very upset because there was a wall section that collapsed during the building of the pool. It turns out the builder of the pool didn't use his team's ground water pressure for that area and changed the design to put more spacing between the supports for the walls causing the collapse. I don't know much more, except dad had to prove how the contractor changing the support spacing is what caused the collapse. He made a scale wooden model that slid to show the differences in what the support was supposed to be and what the contractor made as a visual aid to show this. I just found your videos and I am binge watching the ones related to space.

As a retired engineer, I really appreciate the technical theory. Also, the video sent chills down my spine as I remembered my experiances with other engineers to apply the theories to real world problems. This video is AMAZING !!

I was going to watch a small bit of this giant nugget of a video and then sleep some, to continue watching more tomorrow. It is now a few minutes past 6am and I just finished watching the whole thing. Golly was this interesting stuff!

Simply stunning content Destin, thank you so very much. Much love from Canada. 🏍️🇨🇦

26:00 I absolutely adore watching astronauts adrift on the moon. The fish out of water analogy is accurately applicable.

Wow, thank you NASA and Destin. Greetings from Popayan, Colombia.

as an australian its nice too hear an american pronounce "Canberra" right, you rock Destin

Thank you for this great video, this is so inspiring and educational, can't ignore the professionalism and smartness people who work on Artemis project!

Great video and what an amazing opportunity to do that. I wonder though when Randy fell over, if part of righting himself was due to friction against the water from kicking his leg, or if his movements had a gyroscopic effect on his body which allowed him to pivot on his CG?

Usually when I spent 1 hour on youtube, I'm demoralized by my lack of productivity, but watching you it felt time well invested, I would watch 3-4 hours version of this happily, great video.

I watch this channel to reassure myself that we do actually still have very intelligent humans doing very intelligent things in this country.

Man, you have worked hard to make this channel what it is, and get the credibility to experience all of these awesome things, and I am so jealous. Thanks for sharing these. I really do feel smarter everyday.

Fantastic stuff Destin. You’re an amazing person and very interesting, well explained content

Destin - you should reach out to Jared Isaacman if you still want to go to space. You clearly have the smarts to do it and the educational content you could make on a Polaris Dawn mission or some other sort of Commercial Astronaut mission. Tim Dodd is going on the Dear Moon mission - I think you and Scott Manley should both go on one too. As science UKpostsrs with the "nerd chops" to communicate this kind of thing, the three of you could make some AMAZING citizen science missions come alive to inspire the next generation of astronauts. God may not have wanted you to be a NASA astronaut - but maybe check in with Him about commercial space. :) Love the video!

This is such a cool video. I always wondered what it was like inside the NBL. There's not a lot of footage out there actually in the pool. Thanks for sharing this with the world. I learned a lot. I do wonder if this was all shot before or after Smarter Every Day 293 where you gave the presentation criticizing Artemis and Starship because I wonder if this changed your opinion or if this experience informed the opinions expressed in that presentation. I also wonder what kind of feedback you got from that presentation from the people in the room or other people close to Artemis who saw it on the internet. The low fidelity mock up on the floor of the pool was obviously the diameter of a Starship and the elevator is how they'll get down from Starship so that is what they were testing. That video really stuck with me for some reason and I just wondered about that while watching this. Anyway, I'm so jealous. This looked like a lot of fun. Thanks for doing this and sharing it with all of us.

Amazing content Destin!

LOL at Destin @ 1:17:00 being fascinated by something that's been in pretty much every public swimming pool changing room for something like 20 years!

Videos like this make me very proud to have been a Patreon supporter for nearly four years!

That Starship mockup really puts into perspective how big it will be.

This has to be one of, if not the, coolest video on youtube. This is exactly what I'd love to see more of on here, super interesting deep dives (pun intended) on how we prepare for space. No one else is doing this sort of stuff at this kind of level, and it being so long is just real pleasure. Please feel free to put out long ones like this in the future again, they're a real joy. Bless you and the work you're doing Destin!

You got me, Destin, I'm hooked...

The whole learning to walk in 1/6th G thing is amazing. It's experiencing what it was like to learn to walk as a toddler. The ability to learn and adapt is truly a remarkable thing. Also, I came to the realisation why toddlers trip and stumble as they learn to walk thanks to this video. And of course, the NBL is an amazing place. It would be the experience of a lifetime to get into the pool and just explore the mockups they have.

Learning you tried to become an astronaut suddenly made EVERY one of your previous videos make more sense. I've loved your adventures - from the goofy to the sciency to the orphanage. This takes the cake. Bravo and blessed Resurrection Day.

Loving this but would have extra loved timestamps for back reference!

I love the little "oh no!" hands on face from the diver when Randy fell over and the claps when he got up!

Im amazed with the access you got. Thank you sharing it with us. As an engineer that written quite a few flight test cards in my day, it makes it an easy anxiety free watch knowing and seeing how respectful you are to people that has put months of work in for just hours of data. Thank you sgain.

Seeing the smartest people in the world just wobble over on the moon is the funniest thing i have seen.

Hey Destin! I always love your videos. Did your experience at the NBL for this test give you confidence that NASA was taking the feedback you gave them in your talk positively?

Immense respect for all the people who work hard behind the scenes to make everything possible for the astronauts!

I'm a software engineer, but also a GA pilot and have to do CG and moment calculations quite a lot to do weight and balance of the airplane I'm flying. The bit where you explain the way they figure out the CG and CB is super fascinating how it's all balanced out. Thanks for sharing your content. I enjoy learning new things every day.

The sponsor of this video "Eight Sleep" logs your sleep data and forces you to sign a contract to let them sell this data to anyone. It's also a subscription based service. Imagine that, you pay a monthly fee to use your physical hardware that you bought. No fee, no work. Destin, please do some due diligence in vetting your sponsors next time.

Slowly getting closer to the Sci-Fi Earth atmosphere space suits :D

The amount of knowledge, information, entertainment and joy in this video is just mind boggling. Thank you Destin!