Operationally this has been a very challenging mission. Along with all our mission objectives, we have been incorporating the use of a lot of new equipment to more fully enable the exploration analog. Among these are the Cobra Tac (underwater navigation device), remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and Link Quest (aquanaut tracking system). All of these need data and/or control connectivity back to the ExPOC (our control center back in Houston) to successfully complete the analog. Of course our computers are a common link here, as the data/control function passes along the internet through our laptop computers in the habitat. We have had challenges with this connectivity with each of these systems so far during the mission, but we finally seem to be at the point that we’ve overcome most of them.
The aquanaut tracking system is a centerpiece of our exploration analog activities. When we go back to the Moon to stay, our astronauts will sometimes be going on lengthy excursions away from their base. Obviously for their own safety, as well as for situational awareness for the Mission Control team in Houston, it will be beneficial to know where they are. Think of an air traffic controller seeing a screen showing each airplane in the area - its distance away, its bearing (direction from the tower), and a little track of dots (called “breadcrumbs”) showing where it has been. This is how our aquanaut tracking system works. It has a transceiver mounted above Aquarius which sends ultrasonic signals out across the reef. The aquanauts and/or ROV are outfitted with a transponder. When the transponder gets interrogated by the incoming signal from the transceiver, it replies with identifying information. Thus our mission controllers in the ExPOC and crewmembers inside the habitat know where each aquanaut and the ROV are with respect to the habitat, as well as where they’ve been. You’ll see how valuable this tool is for the upcoming “cargo vehicle” search…
Last night we celebrated the midpoint of the NEEMO 9 mission, in the tradition of the 100-day parties we frequently have for our crewmembers aboard the International Space Station. The crew graciously planned this in advance as a show of appreciation to their families, the staff of the National Undersea Research Center (NURC), the Topside Team, and the team in the ExPOC. At NURC there was a feast for the staff and Topside Team. In Houston, the families of the crew and ExPOC team gathered in the ExPOC for a ceremonial cake. We had a videoconference set up with Aquarius, and the crew and all present got to talk, laugh, and share the experience together. It’s hard to believe the mission is nearing its end!
Thanks for staying with us!
- NEEMO 9 Topside Team
Already day 11 and it’s 2100 hours.. The time is just flying by. The day starts early and ends late. Not that that’s a bad thing.
I got out for a 80 min dive this afternoon. I watched the ROV ops being conducted from inside Aquarius. A little bit of current and the wrong heading can make for a uncomfortable dive for the operator. Tether management is an important factor when “flying” the ROV.
Four spotted eagle rays have been hanging around for the last few days. coming closer each day. They must be getting more comfortable with us in their neighborhood, and of course the rest of the sea life has accepted our presence as well.
Topside I do appreciate all your support, it would be miserable without it. Thank You.
Today brought another round of interesting activities aboard Aquarius, as we went through the exercise of robotically manipulating simulated Lunar samples. One of the primary goals of astronauts returning to the Moon will be to collect noteworthy geological samples for eventual return to Earth. Once they’re collected and brought back to the lunar base, then what?
We are fortunate to have the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science division at JSC (better known as ARES) involved on the NEEMO 9 mission. The Lunar analog sample activity today was designed to demonstrate current capabilities for remote geologic sample collecting and manipulation as well as science planning, communications, and data gathering in an extreme environment. This activity is helping to prepare for future sample collection missions in the extreme conditions of the Lunar environment.
We know that we need to take great care to avoid contamination issues with Lunar samples. Obviously we don’t want to risk contaminating our crewmembers with anything that might be present on the samples, but it’s also important that we don’t contaminate the samples with traces of Earth or Earth-bound life. We need to be sure that anything we find in the Lunar samples indeed has a Lunar origin. So it is likely that we will have some kind of sterile environment that the samples go into, and inside which they can be manipulated (scanned, photographed, measured, etc.) It is also likely that a remotely controlled (from Earth) robot will have a prominent role in this task, as it will free up more valuable crew time for other things - or just allow the crew time for a needed break!
Today simulated Lunar samples (Earth rocks that geologically resemble those we know exist on the Moon) were manipulated remotely using the telerobot operated from the Center for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) in Ontario, Canada per instructions from the science investigators back at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The robotic manipulator was able to handle every task it was assigned from picking the rocks up and displaying them to the scientists for decision making to putting the samples in containers and closing the containers for storage. Again, Dr. Mehran Anvarri operated the robot from Hamilton, Ontario. Even with the 2 second Lunar time delay introduced, he showed once again the power of telerobotics — not only for surgery, but as an multifunction tool for Exploration!
Thanks for staying with us!
- NEEMO 9 Topside Team
We had some amazing accomplishments on Sunday while (hopefully) most of you were enjoying your weekends. We started a new Center for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) experiment to evaluate telerobotic technologies in extreme and lunar environments. The robot in question is an experimental new two-armed robot which is much more compact and portable than previous systems. It has “stereo” cameras, which allows the remote surgeon to see in three dimensions, rather than the standard two-dimensional image on a flat screen. It gets digitally linked to the robotic arms aboard Aquarius via a combination of land-based and wireless telecommunications networks. The task was to perform vascular suturing (stitching up a vein) on a medical model aboard Aquarius, with one of the aquanauts assisting the surgeon by changing instruments on the robotic arms and passing sutures.
This marks the first time in human history an entire robotic surgical platform was transported to an extreme environment (in this case Aquarius) and was manipulated successfully from afar. From the control console at CMAS in Hamilton, Ontario, Dr. Mehran Anvari was able to perform a complex surgical task (vascular suturing, or stitching up a vein). Imagine turning your crowded bedroom into an operating room, assembling and hanging an incredibly sophisticated robot between two bunks, and enabling a surgeon thousands of kilometers away perform a surgical procedure with it! That’s what occurred onboard Aquarius Sunday. But there’s more: previous research has shown that surgeons can adapt to latencies of 200 to 500 milliseconds, but “common knowledge” said that time delays greater than 500 milliseconds, orhalf a second, would make such a task impossible. On Sunday it was done successfully even with a 2 second time delay - equivalent to the time it would take for the signal to travel to the Moon! This truly was a noteworthy scientific achievement.
The other major new CMAS experiment that was performed was a validation of digital radiology. One of the possible medical emergencies that might arise in an extreme environment, such as a space exploration mission, is an orthopedic injury. A bone fracture would require diagnosis and medical treatment as soon as possible.
Since x-rays are very important tools in both diagnosing orthopedic injuries and in determining appropriate treatment, we wish to demonstrate that digital x-ray images can be transmitted from an extreme environment over a telecommunications network for evaluation by an expert radiologist. Transmission of medical images such as x-rays over a telecommunications network results in both a time delay (latency) and in some loss of image quality.
The ability to transmit digital x-ray images from an extreme environment requires the compression of the x-ray data to enable fast delivery of the images. However, higher compression rates cause image degradation which could hinder the ability to make a clinical diagnosis. Our goal is to send a series of compressed x-ray images to evaluate which compression algorithms provide both the image quality to make a clinical diagnosis and a timely data transfer. Once the images are uploaded, a physicist and a radiologist will evaluate each image without knowing whether it was sent from Aquarius over the simulated lunar network or an uncompressed x-ray image sent from within the hospital.
Thanks for staying with us!
- NEEMO 9 Topside Team
Sunday, a day of rest. Well, maybe not. We woke at 5am for our dawn dive so we could be in the water before sunrise. We were sitting on the bottom in 80 feet of water when the sun rose. Peaceful and serene. Thanks to three waystation tank refills, it was also a long dive of 2 hours 15 minutes. Beautiful early morning sea life and sun at both Kamper and Northeast — especially at Northeast.
As soon as the dive was over, we quickly converted the bunkroom into a robotic telesurgery lab. Today saw the first underwater robotic telesurgery as well as first time a surgeon remotely sutured at 2 second latency. Based on our telementoring and telesurgery over the last few days, it looks like we can provide medical support from the earth to a lunar base. As we had a few technical challenges related to the network and the robot, I am really excited to do some more robotic telesurgery on Tuesday. We also will use the same robot for lunar sample exploration as well.
Despite the dawn dive and lunar delay telesurgery, the highlight of the day was our personal family conferences– called PFCs in NASA-ese. The crewmembers talked to their family via videoteleconference. The kids were very funny, talking to their parents playfully as the rest of the crew went about their business all around the habitat. The crew would chime in as work would bring them into view. As my girls were in the midst of a family party, I talked to them on the phone around dinner. All is well, all understand the importance of this mission, but it is still hard on the family. Erin and Caitlin were enjoying an early Easter egg hunt and alternated giddy from chocolate and sugar with sad from missing their daddy. Instead of eggs, Maggie’s first two teeth popped in today. She will have changed quite a bit in the month I have been gone.
Lots of yellowtail snapper, eagle ray, grouper, barracuda, angels — lots of fish. I am starting to recognize some familiar faces and they are starting to recognize us as well. Our friends on the reef.
Busy day again tomorrow. Cannot believe we are almost halfway through the mission…