Losing your balance and feeling dizzy? It happens as we grow older, and astronauts are trying to help us figure out why. Producer Judith Kampfner takes a look at how health researchers use the experience of weightlessness to better understand the bodies' equilibrium. The effects of motion sickness —disorientation, maladjustment to environment, and human flexibility to adapt — are the same effects experienced by astronauts in outer space. Kampfner visits a laboratory at MIT where biomedical research engineer Charles Oman studies how our sense of direction and place is coded into the brain. At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas she learns about research to help astronauts compensate for their lack of balance — techniques that translate to life on Earth.

The Soundprint documentary series features the best work of top radio producers. The award winning documentaries are renowned for drawing the listener into the story with compelling interviews, authentic voices and rich sound. From memoirs to science, health and popular culture, Soundprint creates a powerful experience the listener will not soon forget. “Getting Your Bearings” was produced in collaboration with WABE and the Morehouse School of Medicine and is part of a Soundprint special series called Exploring Space Science. Here are some other documentaries in the series:

Comets, Meteors and Asteroids Produced by Dan Grossman

“The Enigma Force” Produced by Judith Kampfner

“The Forecasters of Farming” Produced by Judith Kampfner

“Health Over the Horizon” Produced by Judith Kampfner

“The Human Clock” Produced by Judith Kampfner

“The Long Distance Patient” Produced by Judith Kampfner

“Space Aging” Produced by Judith Kampfner

Soundprint Executive Producer: Moira Rankin

Technical Director: Anna Maria de Freitas

Associate Producer: Gemma Hooley

Audio Engineer: Stephen Moore

Production Assistant: Melissa Sumpter