A memoir of a young man’s dream of space flight, Bending Atmospheres is a dazzling adventure recounting daring, heroic professionals learning to work at undersea pressures to 1,000 feet sea water and in the vacuum of orbital space traveling at 18,000 miles an hour. Readers are taken through the early development of deep diving TRI-MIX , Nitrox and Neon diving gas mixtures and decompression tables, to early diving in the treacherous North Sea and methods used to train astronauts for space walks to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
About the Author
Glenn J. Butler
With over 50 years of experience in military, scientific, commercial diving, aerospace and hyper-hypobaric engineering, research and clinical operations, Glenn J. Butler is the founder and CEO of Life Support Technologies (LST) group.
Founded in 1984, LST’s initial mission was to transfer deep diving/hyperbaric technologies and oxygen enriched air (nitrox) diving and oxygen safety techniques to NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Today, LST’s group of companies specializes in advanced wound care, hyperbaric medicine, hyperbaric tunneling and aerospace hypobaric consulting and engineering services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, LST has been instrumental in aiding Metro New York hospitals with hyperbaric therapies and other life-saving measures.
Over the course of his career, Glenn and key associates have developed and provided advanced commercial and military deep diving and saturation techniques decompression tables and equipment. Currently, he has 12 deep diving/hyperbaric technologies patents and 48 peer-reviewed scientific papers.
As of 2020, Glenn’s professional appointments include the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society’s Hyperbaric Safety Committee; the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel’s Support Surface Standards Committee; and NFPA-99 Healthcare Facilities Code’s Hyperbaric Facilities Committee (2005 edition).
Along with his longstanding connections and relationships with NASA, the Department of Defense, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel, Glenn is a fellow at the Manhattan-based Explores Club. This designation is reserved for those who have distinguished themselves by directly contributing to scientific knowledge in the field of geographical exploration or allied sciences.
