NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation project
NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO,[1] is a NASA analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in the Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research station, for up to three weeks at a time in preparation for future space exploration.[2]
Aquarius is an underwater habitat 3.5 miles (5.6 km) off Key Largo, Florida, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It is deployed on the ocean floor next to deep coral reefs 62 feet (19 m) below the surface.
NASA has used it since 2001 for a series of space exploration simulation missions, usually lasting 7 to 14 days, with space research mainly conducted by international astronauts. The mission had cost about 500 million U.S. dollars. The crew members are called aquanauts (as they live underwater at depth pressure for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface), and they perform EVAs in the underwater environment.[2] A technique known as saturation diving allows the aquanauts to live and work underwater for days or weeks at a time. After twenty four hours underwater at any depth, the human body becomes saturated with dissolved gas. With saturation diving, divers can accurately predict exactly how much time they need to decompress before returning to the surface. This information limits the risk of decompression sickness. By living in the Aquarius habitat and working at the same depth on the ocean floor, NEEMO crews are able to remain underwater for the duration of their mission.
For NASA, the Aquarius habitat and its surroundings provide a convincing analog for space exploration.[2]Much like space, the undersea world is a hostile, alien place for humans to live. NEEMO crew members experience some of the same challenges there that they would on a distant asteroid, planet (i.e. Mars) or Moon. During NEEMO missions, the aquanauts are able to simulate living on a spacecraft and test spacewalk techniques for future space missions. Working in space and underwater environments requires extensive planning and sophisticated equipment. The underwater condition has the additional benefit of allowing NASA to "weight" the aquanauts to simulate different gravity environments.[3]
Since 2013, Aquarius is owned by Florida International University (FIU).[4] As part of the FIU Marine Education and Research Initiative, the Medina Aquarius Program is dedicated to the study and preservation of marine ecosystems worldwide and is enhancing the scope and impact of FIU on research, educational outreach, technology development, and professional training. At the heart of the program is the Aquarius Reef Base.[5]
NEEMO 20 mission objective was to simulate the time delays associated with sending and receiving commands between controllers on Earth and astronauts on Mars. Additional EVAs will simulate working on the surface of an asteroid, and the use of the DeepWorker submersible as an underwater stand-in for the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle.[50]
NEEMO 21: July 21 – August 5, 2016
The NEEMO 21 mission was scheduled to begin July 18, 2016 and conclude August 3, 2016; however, the mission start was shifted to July 21, 2016 as a result of unfavorable weather conditions.
^Communications, Florida International University-Digital. "Medina Aquarius Program". environment.fiu.edu.
^Communications, Florida International University-Digital. "About". environment.fiu.edu.
^ a b c d eNASA (February 27, 2006). "Behind the Scenes: Training - NEEMO History". NASA. Archived from the original on July 15, 2003. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
^NASA (June 2011). "Astronaut Bio: Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke (06/2011)". NASA. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
^NASA (April 21, 2011). "Life Sciences Data Archive : Experiment". NASA. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
^Walheim, Rex (September 24, 2002). "NEEMO 4 Journals". NASA. Archived from the original on July 24, 2003. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^NOAA (May 17, 2010). "NEEMO 4 Journals". NOAA. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^NASA (April 21, 2011). "Life Sciences Data Archive : Experiment". NASA. Archived from the original on March 22, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^NASA (2003). "NEEMO 5". NASA. Archived from the original on November 18, 2004. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^"Aquarius - First Space Station Science Officer Leads Crew of Four NASA Aquanauts On 14-Day NOAA Aquarius Undersea Mission". University of North Carolina Wilmington. May 17, 2010. Archived from the original on December 12, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^Whitson, Peggy (June 19, 2003). "NEEMO 5 Journals". NASA. Archived from the original on July 15, 2003. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^NASA (August 3, 2004). "NEEMO 6". NASA. Archived from the original on November 18, 2004. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
^NASA (September 6, 2011). "Life Sciences Data Archive : Experiment". NASA. Archived from the original on April 5, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
^NASA (October 13, 2004). "NEEMO 7". NASA. Archived from the original on October 30, 2004. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^Canadian Space Agency (August 9, 2004). "CSA - Neemo 7 Mission". Canadian Space Agency. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^NASA (April 21, 2011). "Life Sciences Data Archive : Experiment". NASA. Archived from the original on April 5, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^NEEMO 12 Topside Team (May 6, 2007). "NASA - NEEMO 12 Topside Journal". NASA. Retrieved March 10, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^NASA (July 24, 2007). "NASA Announces Next Undersea Exploration Mission Dates and Crew". NASA. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
^Topside Team (August 8, 2007). "NEEMO 13 Topside Report - Training Week". NURC. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
^The NEEMO Mission Management and Topside Support Team (June 12, 2012). "NEEMO 16 Mission Day 2 - Status Report" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
^Love, Stan (June 17, 2012). "Dr. Love's Underwater Blog: NEEMO 16". NASA. Archived from the original on December 12, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
^Squyres, Steve (June 17, 2012). "NEEMO 16: EVA Divers and Subs". NASA. Archived from the original on December 13, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
^Love, Stan (June 18, 2012). "Dr. Love's Underwater Blog: Mobility and Stability with DeepWorkers". NASA. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
^Stevenin, Hervé (June 19, 2012). "The NEEMO 16 Aquanauts meet the Men in Black". Yahoo! Inc. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
^Garcia, Mark (Apr 13, 2015). "NASA, International Partners Plan Undersea Training Mission". NASA.
^ a bBergin, Chris (June 11, 2014). "NEEMO returns with two new underwater missions". NASASpaceflight. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
^Computing, HySpeed (Sep 16, 2013). "Aquarius SEATEST II – Astronauts emerge from a successful underwater mission".
^"Hervé Stevenin". www.esa.int.
^"NEEMO 20 Crew (L to R) CDR Luca Parmitano (ESA), Serena Aunon (NASA), David Coan (NASA), Norishige Kanai, (JAXA), inside Aquarius Mark Hulsbeck (FIU) and Sean Moore (FIU)". Jul 20, 2015 – via Flickr.
^"NASA Prepares for Future Space Exploration with International Undersea Crew". June 24, 2015.
^"NEEMO 20 to build knowledge base on delayed deep space communications, Chris Bergin, nasaspaceflight". July 6, 2015.
^Loff, Sarah (2016-07-22). "Aquanauts Splash Down, Beginning NEEMO 21 Research Mission". Retrieved 2016-07-24.
^Emily Toomey (July 29, 2019). "NASA Scientists and Astronauts Practice for Space Missions on the Seafloor". Smithsonian magazine.