Mission & Project Info | NOAA’s Aquarius Undersea Laboratory
Mission Blog

Mission Day 9 opened with an historic event: the dedication of a geodesic marker that commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Aquarius Habitat and the 200th anniversary of NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS). Heide went outside and was joined on the reef by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere Tim Keeney who was on scuba. NOAA Administrator Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher joined in by telephone to celebrate the occasion.

One of only two such markers in the world that are under the sea, it indicates not only the latitude and longitude but also the depth of Aquarius. Since 1807, NGS and its predecessor agencies have placed hundreds of thousands of these permanent survey marks or monuments throughout the United States. Today, the National Geodetic Survey’s database contains information on approximately 1,200,000 survey disks, set all over the United States and its possessions. This network of precisely placed survey marks is the set of reference points used by geologists, surveyors, and others interested in precise positioning on the Earth’s surface.

This event was yet another example of the important partnership between NOAA, NURC and NASA which all have all embraced the challenge of exploration in extreme environments.

NASA is in the early phases of designing the space suit for Lunar and Mars exploration, and the NEEMO Project continues to be deep in the heart of the solution. The Apollo moon walks demonstrated that the weight and center of gravity (cg) of the space suit and portable life support system backpack were important parameters affecting astronaut performance.

On 3 previous NEEMO missions, the acceptable center of gravity limits for future space suit and portable life support system backpack designs were evaluated. In those studies, the divers wore a reconfigurable cg backpack developed by the NASA EVA Physiology, Systems and Performance Project (EPSP) working in conjunction with the Crew and Thermal Systems engineers and performed activities representative of lunar exploration tasks. Based on data collected in these missions and other NASA based studies, the NASA engineering team is in the process of refining their space suit design to limit the cg effects. For this mission four new cg locations replicating the next generation in space suit design were evaluated as they once again performed a series of tasks representative of planetary exploration activities which have now been arranged into a timed course. These tasks included: timed walks and jogs, ascending and descending a 20 degree ramp, kneeling, falling and recovering, picking up rocks, shoveling and climbing ladders.

Another important space suit design consideration involves the weight of the space suit and its effect on one’s ability to perform exploratory tasks. Having a space suit which is too light may result in poor traction for performing tasks such as lifting objects or climbing ramps and ladders. However, if a space suit is too heavy, then much effort is lost to moving the suit instead of performing planetary exploration objectives. For this reason, the NEEMO aquanauts donned special suits which could be reconfigured for six different suit weight variations. They then systematically conducted the exploration tasks in series as a timed course to evaluate the effect of varying suit weight on their performance. Subjective data as well as overall completion time will be used to evaluate the optimal weight for future space design.

We had a couple of other visitors of note on day 10. Loredana Bessone, from the European Space Agency (ESA), has been here this week to evaluate the suitability of the NEEMO space analog for future ESA use. Also, Dr. Sapna Parikh, Medical Correspondent for Fox 5 News in New York City, paid us a visit and conducted interviews for an upcoming story.

Finally, day 11 is “deco” day – the day the aquanauts go through the extensive decompression protocol that allows them to return safely to the surface on Friday. Once your body is “saturated” with nitrogen from the elevated pressure of living under the sea, it simply isn’t possible to return to the surface at will. The fact that this ~ 17 hour decompression is required is a key element to Aquarius being in an “extreme” environment for humans. That critical dimension is one reason this makes such a good space analog.

Splashup tomorrow!

Thanks for joining us.
-NEEMO 12 Topside Team