“The Right Things” demonstrates why live demos are stressful

Performing in front of a crowd can be unnerving. Simply introducing yourself to an audience is intimidating enough, but it’s exponentially more stressful when you’re trying to demonstrate something live. This is true today, and it was also true of early Mercury astronauts.

Over the years I have attended more than my fair share of technology and cybersecurity conferences. I have seen many phenomenal demonstrations, and have also seen many crashing and burning demonstrations, in real time, in front of a live audience. It’s an uncomfortable feeling to say the least, and I speak as an uninvolved spectator sitting in the audience.

When NASA embarked on the mission of engaging in the space race against the Soviet Union and pursuing manned spaceflight, there was much to point out. Almost every element of what they were doing and what they were trying to accomplish was new and untested. Plus, they had to be done on an accelerated time frame on a tight budget and there was no room for failure.

As for the astronauts themselves, it was a new world for them too. They were used to the stress and adrenaline rush of flying, but joining the Mercury program significantly raised the stakes of competition between them while simultaneously turning them into the 1950s equivalent of reality TV stars. They were celebrities, and they were the public face of NASA and our successes in the space race.

In this exclusive clip of “The Right Stuff” from Nat Geo and Disney +, astronaut Alan Shepard must demonstrate an emergency exit procedure, basically an escape route in case something goes wrong and the astronaut has to escape from the capsule before it fills with water and drowns. The potential for drowning is stressful enough, but add an audience of government officials and media and a stopwatch to time your efforts and the pressure is insane.

When it comes to technology and cybersecurity, it’s generally possible to avoid some of the stress and potential problems of a live demo by pre-recording it. At least then you know that what you show the public will work as intended, provided you don’t suffer from some kind of technical or audio / video problem. Unfortunately for Shepard, pre-recording his escape from the capsule was not an option.

The whole scene is also an excellent illustration of how cramped the capsule was and how rudimentary the technology looks by today’s standards. If NASA could put humans into orbit around Earth – and even send missions to the Moon and back – using that technology, there shouldn’t be anything we can’t accomplish today with the technology we have now.

You can check out the latest episode on Disney + tomorrow. New episodes are released every Friday and are available to stream later.