The astronauts are wearing white suits with American flags and mission patches on them . They ’re aware but unworried about the hostile environment inches away from their nose . They ’d be dead in seconds if it were not for their air provision . As they bound agilely along in a state of nigh - weightlessness , all each astronaut can hear is breathing .
And the submerged loudspeaker system blasting commands to dive .
Research that is done from the Aquarius Reef Base is of import to ocean skill , sure , but what very few realize is that NASA apply the underwater home ground to quiz out gear and procedure that will be used in orbit , the moon , and even Mars . In terms of its hostility , beauty , standoffishness , and solemnity storey , the ocean is not unlike blank . The programme is call the Extreme Environment Mission Operations , or NEEMO for short . Last month , NASA behave its sixteenth commission at Aquarius .
The missions , which start rolling in 2001 , are the closest thing we have on Earth to dress rehearsals for existent space missionary post . Some highlight from the programme ’s 11 - year footrace :
NEEMO 5 ’s crew tested technologies for talk to spacewalkers after they ’d roll far from the international distance post , experimented on how the environment affected the immune system and a new in - suit gadget that could detect decompression illness .
During NEEMO 7 , astronauts rehearse tele - medicine on a mock patient .
NEEMO 8 had , among other things , the aquanauts practicing moonwalking technique in the water , which has a “ one - 6th gravity equivalent to the moonshine ’s . ”
By NEEMO 10 NASA was using Aquarius and the surrounding sand bottoms to essay remote control robots .
In NEEMO 11 , the crew practiced navigation and geological sample collection techniques potentially useful on Mars .
NEEMO 14 ’s aquanauts exercise EVAs — extravehicular bodily function — that include practice protocols for rescuing incapacitated astronauts and delivering them to a lander .
NEEMO 15 was cut poor by a hurricane .
NEEMO 16 , which pass off last month , was about practicing landing place on an cheeseparing - earth asteroid .
bring down on an asteroid wrick out to be a mess like rock climbing — skin-diver had to clip in and apply rope system to sail rock walls that NASA brought in as estimation of asteroid surface . But sometimes it was more like base jumping , with aquanaut demand to exercise “ innocent flying ” technique . They liken what it was like to perform certain tasks regularly to performing them with the aid of simulated jetpacks — sound gamy - tech , but those are basically propellor attached to strain tank . Surprisingly , some preferred the tasks without jetpacks .
NASA also tested out some Modern open source technologies that will allow for small monetary value rovers , like the OpenROV torpedo , which be a few hundred dollars and is being designed to reach out 100 measure of depth .
“ In the sterling simulator in the world , you could pass all the money that you want , but you could not fob the human brain , ” state Bill Todd , the NEEMO project director and a longtime astronaut training supervisor . He lived for a workweek at Aquarius with three others during the first NEEMO sitting back in 2001 . He bestow , ” Physiologically or psychologically you’re able to not trick it into thinking that it truly is in an extreme surroundings . you’re able to escape from it , you’re able to rock and roam it , and kick downstairs it . you’re able to have the greatest visuals in the world , but the guy do it that he ’s going to get a coffee bean jailbreak in forty minutes and it ’s all good . That ’s not the case in what we ’re doing . ”
The reality of the conditions at Aquarius and its surround play into accent level and behavior . condition also force everyone to deal with the inevitable glitches that arise — just as they would have to if they were in a galaxy far , far away . “ We ’re constantly battle the little demons , just like we do in quad , ” says Todd . “ That ’s what makes it material . ”
“ We cognize what it ’s wish to be in a space suit , we bed what it feels like to be in zero somberness , ” enunciate Tim Peake , a European Space Agency cosmonaut . “ The piss allow ’s us do that . ” Peake was speaking from inside the habitat a few Clarence Shepard Day Jr. into the NASA group ’s most recent commission . “ So we can really put ourselves in the position where we ’re on an asteroid Earth’s surface and test out these tools and techniques and really assess what work on and what does n’t work and how we ’re going to do these tasks . ”
And that ’s why spaceman hope to keep follow back to Aquarius . And why we need Aquarius to exist , for the sake of not just ocean geographic expedition , but space exploration , too .
Mission Aquariusis our week - long slip to the globe ’s last remain undersea habitat : Aquarius Reef Base .
Journalist Ben Hellwarth is the author of the new bookSEALAB : America ’s Forgotten Quest to Live and make for on the Ocean Floor .
NASA
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