Mission Journal 2 — Danny Olivas: Mission Day 1: Wednesday, April 20th, 2005
Splashdown today went as planned. As I type, Mike Gernhardt is actively engaged with our two crew members who are currently engaged in our primary mapping exercise. This expedition, NASA is exploring the use of Aquarius as a potential test bed for Lunar and Martian excursion training. Unlike previous ventures to our 45 ft deep home away from home, this shortened training evolution is making use of the buoyant nature of humans in water to simulate the gravitational field of the moon. Over the course of the last 2 days, we have been working with the NURC team in developing a course whereby our astronauts can trade in their standard mask, fins and SCUBA tanks for hard helmet, weighted boots and surface supplied umbilicals. This is the first of a series of training events where we are using what was learned in the previous 7 NEEMO missions and mapping it over into the grand endeavors of the new defined Vision for Space Exploration. Using the modified life support system from Aquarius, we are staging a several exercises deemed to be in line with what astronauts might one day have to do if based on some other planetary body.
Monika Schultz and Scott Kelly, using their umbilicals as glorified “measuring tapes” and diver’s compasses to define radials, have just concluded a mapping exercise that 4 hours ago, Mike and I initiated. Using these simple tools such as these, astronauts would be expected to map their immediate surrounding in enough detail so that those on earth might be able to gain more insight into their surroundings. What makes this activity especially interesting and challenging is that we have been coordinating with our mission control center in Houston to record data and run the excursion timeline.
As might have been expected on such a compressed timeline as this two day mission is, communication problems with Houston early in the activity meant we had to rely on the old standby…humans close by. With communication down with Houston, Mike and I coordinated the entire first have of the exercise with Scott and Monika. As our habitat technicians worked furiously to sort out the problems with MCC, we resorted to using what we know, everything by hand.
Needless to say, everything worked out great. The data was dumped to the server and we’re now wrapping up for the day. All in all, a great day at the bottom of the ocean. Saw a lot as well as learned a lot. What we’re doing will definitely teach us more about how we will one day do business on the surface of the moon or mars.