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for Apollo 16 astronauts yawn and during

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the lunar rover was a valuable tool

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allowing them to explore greater areas

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of the main service but to millions of

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Americans watching from Earth it looked

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like just plain fun everyone wanted to

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take the rover for a ride Tom would

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certainly but for a stronger reason here

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was a vehicle that took only one hand to

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offer a nineteen seventy or mobile

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accident left Tom partially paralyzed

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his dream of having a single stick

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control system like the Rovers for his

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own vehicle began to take shape in March

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1974 when he and his wife Shirley were

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invited to NASA's Johnson Space Center

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in Houston Texas tom was accustomed to

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the idea of driving with one hand that's

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exactly how his wheelchair worked the

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only modification required on the rover

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was the addition of a simple metal

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support for his on toms notion proved

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correct he could indeed drive the rover

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inspired by Tom's performance NASA

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teamed up with the Veterans

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Administration and awarded a contract to

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the Johnson engineering corporation in

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Boulder Colorado what Johnson has

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developed with now 39 year old Tom warts

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his health is a system called the eunice

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take a 1981 ford van with a conventional

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wheelchair lift on the back is being

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used in the eunice tick project once

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inside the driver pushes a button which

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rolls the eunice tick control panel into

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place to start the van he just presses

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another button shifting works the same

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way moving the joystick forward

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accelerates the van how far it is moved

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determine speed sliding the stick left

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or right turns the van in the desired

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direction while pulling it back applies

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the brakes even people used to

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conventional steering wheels and pedals

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have said they actually prefer driving

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with the eunice ting after only a few

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hours of practice Andy kept drivers have

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been even more enthusiastic Johnson

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engineering vice president nancy dagger

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independence is a very very key thing

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for handicapped people and they see the

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ability to drive and being able to

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transport themselves as regaining

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independence that they've lost being

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able to do things on his own is exactly

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why tom words is so excited about the

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eunice take you liked it often

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go by yourself and do like used to play

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you got heard it just give you total

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freedom my independence I just really be

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happy when they got it all completed him

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out on the market Johnson engineering is

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now testing the unis tick to make sure

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it consistently performs as designed so

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now a part of this van the system could

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be installed in just about any car or

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truck the hope is that Eunice tix will

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be commercially available by late

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nineteen eighty-seven it's been 14 years

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since the works is first saw the

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astronauts driving the rover on the moon

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and 12 years since they visited the

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Johnson Space Center in Houston but the

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whole experience has left a strong

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impression surely explained up until

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that point I think that we always felt

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that NASA was involved in the space

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program that was it and that would never

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affect us ever but now we know that

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their program gives us and everybody

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that's handicapped a chance to use some

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of their technology in our everyday

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lives that everybody else takes for

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granted

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the unis tick vehicle control helping

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handicapped people lead more independent