The NEEMO 6 mission ended yesterday morning on a gorgeous, flat calm Floriday day. The crew finished deco and were guided slowly to the surface by a pair of safety divers. They “splashed up” at approximately 9:00 am. All were healthy and in great spirits. They enjoyed a leisurely lunch of Thai food and spent the afternoon unwinding and resting. We all participated in the splashup party with many of the local people that have supported us in the last few weeks to celebrate the success of the mission. The party took place at a private residence on the ocean, and we all observed a moment of silence at sunset while 7 white doves were released in honor of the Columbia crew. They circled overhead a few times, and then disappeared into the twilight sky.

On behalf of the crew and Topside Team, we’d like to extend our thanks to all those who supported this mission and made it possible:

• JSC’s Engineering Directorate, for your vision, funding, manpower, hardware, and real spaceflight engineering objectives to make the mission meaningful;
• JSC’s Mission Ops Directorate, for the majority of the manpower that keeps this project alive year by year, as well as your unflagging support;
• JSC’s Flight Crew Ops Directorate, the manpower, support, and (majority of the) crew;
• The staff at the National Undersea Research Center for running a world class operation, keeping Aquarius viable, and keeping the whole operation safe and sound;
• Previous NEEMO crews who helped pave the way; and
• The families and friends of all of us who’ve been away so long making this mission a success. We appreciate your sacrifices

Stay tuned for NEEMO 7, our first international mission, which will be focused on telemedicine and telerobotic operations. We are already gearing up for it, as it starts in October.

NEEMO Topside Team out.

The ten days flew by down here, there were great days when I could get out for 5-6 hours diving for exterior valve maintenance, then there were not so great days when all I could squeeze out was a thirty minute dive to do the daily exterior systems’ checks. One guy who certainly earned his keep on this mission was my partner Joe, without his ability to troubleshoot all the communication issues going on at once, this mission would have been a bust. Joe sacrificed much of his desired daily diving release to stay inside to see that all the media events, wireless dive comms to Houston, and yes, even a live link to the International Space Station, came off as planned for the NEEMO team. And he did it all with that huge smile he’s worn since becoming a diver, and I can’t say I was always smiling down here. My hat goes off to Joe, he pulled this one off for the team.

I could fill pages with all the help our topside NURC divers lent to this mission, equipment supply for this mission was beyond our normal load, and all that gear can only get here through the hard work of the “potting crew”, which included our big 30″ diameter dry pot for this mission, and those guys made it look easy. Hal, Billy, Thor, Ross, Roger, great job,
and today will be another major haul out to end the mission. I cannot forget mentioning the support we got during the mission from NASA NBL divers Brent Fergurson and Greg Sims (if I spelled this wrong I’m sorry, but it should be spelled w.o.r.k.h.o.r.s.e!), Navy Experimental Diving Unit divers Tim Moebious and Adolph Herrera, US Naval Academy intern Tim Letts, and NOAA’s Jeff Kelly. They were all involved heavily with the potting and other activities, I know our guys appreciated the help and we thank.

Trying to recognize everyone is surely going to get me into trouble as I’m bound to miss someone. All the media events would not have come off without the link through Kea back at the base, as well as putting all the journals and pictures on the web page, way to go Sis. To Otter for leading the charge with the afternoon assaults and your hand in the deliveries, to James and Dominic, the forgotten ones who watch over us on the graveyard shift through the night. And last, but certainly not least to my friend the “HOM” (Habitat Operations Manager), Jim Buckley, who had to coordinate all this wealth of tasking and people with us down here and the topside NEEMO team as well, great job Jim.

Who am I forgetting, well the remaining folks at NURC, Otto, Mike, and Diana, the countless people at NASA EXPOC, the NEEMO topside team, and oh yes, my fellow aquanauts, John, Wheels, Tara, and Nick. They are the stars of this show and I know don’t mind letting me mention all the little guys behind the scenes. They have been a pleasure to be locked up with for ten days, and I hope we have not seen the last of them. They
were loaded down with tasks this mission and they stuck to their guns to get it done. When they hit walls, they regrouped and charged ahead again, I give them much credit for all they accomplished. Most of all I thank them for letting me demolish, I mean disassemble, their Waterlab project, that was four hours of joyful diving.

To close, I want to thank my good friends Bob Barth and Capt Mark Helmkamp for getting us where we are today in many ways, and by continuing to foster cooperative efforts with the Navy and NURC for assistance with equipment and manpower. And on the days when being down here seemed to start taking its toll, there would come this magical call from either of them that reminded me why I have the best job in the world.

Another ten day mission starts August 9, hope you’ll join us.

Our last two days have been filled with a myriad of events. Educational outreach through video-teleconferencing, a visit by reporters from a major news network, exercise on the resistive exercise device, stretching while floating outside the habitat on an air umbilical, coral science, wireless monitor evaluations, electronic tracking device evals, and on and on and on. There has been a lot of work that has kept us on our toes.

During the interview with the news program, I was asked, “Should we be down here? Do we really belong here?” I responded with how important it is to be here and most importantly, why we need to be in space, that we go where our minds take us. Taking that answer further, I would have to say, we go to places like this to learn more about ourselves. Whether it is in the ocean or above the planet. We learn more about how we impact the world we live in by looking at it from a different perspective. Looking out the window and seeing a fish swim by with a large hook in its mouth, trailing a foot of fishing line. Seeing a bottle buried in the sand and realizing a fish has now made it his home. The habitat we live in is completely foreign to this environment, yet its outer structure has become a refuge to thousands of fish. It provides a sanctuary as well as a food source. We don’t belong, yet we do.

The same can be said of our journeys in space. It is an environment that is inhospitable to humans, yet we have found a way to live and work productively for long periods of time. And the benefits of our efforts have profoundly changed the technological face of the Earth. I also believe it has deeply influenced our appreciation of the world we live in and strengthened our role as stewards of our environment.

Throughout my career, I have always heard the term “scope-locked” used to describe someone who did not see the big picture. They were too engrossed in the details to stop and look at how everything comes together. Most often the solution to a problem lies in seeing how all of the pieces fit together. I believe living and working underwater or over the planet does just that, it give us the big picture. And this picture should keep growing. It should not end in low-Earth orbit or the depths of the sea, but should continue beyond the horizon.

NEEMO 6 is almost in the history books. They have had a very successful and rewarding mission, which has run the gamut from investigating new engineering hardware, software and procedures, to learning to be proxy scientists on the coral reef outside their home. They’ve done multiple educational outreach and public affairs events (see Space.com and, this weekend, CNN and CNN.com for the latest), built waterlab, tagged and characterized the excursion lines around the habitat, and worked with a mission control team in Houston. All the while they were using new timeline and procedure viewing tools operationally for the first time.

As you now know, the crew has spent the last 9 days at a depth of 47 feet. At that depth, their bodies have taken on excess amounts of nitrogen which has been absorbed in their body tissues and must be removed. In order to return to the surface, they will have to go thru a 16 hour process called “decompression” or “deco”. This is a very safe procedure which is accomplished in several steps: 1) The crew breathes pure oxygen for 3 short intervals to help decrease or “washout” the nitrogen in their blood; 2) the main living quarters are “locked out” from the “wet porch” area and the internal habitat pressure is slowly brought to the surface pressure by exhausting the internal air to the surface (14 hours); and finally 3) the habitat is “blown down” to the 47 foot level again in just a few minutes. Then the hatch is opened and the crew swims slowly to the surface under the watchful eye of escorting safety divers. They should be on the surface at ~ 9:00 am on Wednesday, where we (the Topside Team) will be waiting on the boat to take them home under the expert supervision of Otto Rutten, the Base Manager of the NURC operations here in Key Largo. There are few people in this world as good at what they do as Otto – what a nice feeling to know he’ll be there to get you safely home…

When we get back tomorrow, the crew will get a chance to relax and enjoy the fresh air. They’re prohibited from leaving the area for 24 hrs – 48 hrs if leaving by air (which they all are.) This gives the doc a chance to closely observe them for any signs of decompression problems, and treat them immediately if any show up. That’s just a precaution, though – this approach to decompression has been done hundreds of times successfully so far and is considered to be quite safe and conservative. They’re not really supposed to leave the base tomorrow, but we’ve arranged for their doc – Dr. Scott Sparks, on loan from the Navy – to accompany them to lunch tomorrow so they can have some “real” food. They’ll spend the afternoon relaxing, washing clothes, packing up (and hopefully helping us pack all this engineering hardware to be shipped back to Houston!) In the evening we’ll have the traditional “Splashup” party with our NURC hosts to celebrate the successful conclusion of the mission. Part of the NEEMO 7 crew, who have been in town for the last few days getting some preliminary training for their mission, will be joining us. NEEMO 7 starts in October…not much time to rest up!

Thanks for following along.

- NEEMO Topside Team

Ever heard of Stephanocoenia Michelini or Siderastrea Siderea? How about Porites Astreiodes, Montastaea Cavernosa, or Agarcia Agaticites? These are not exotic new diseases being studied on NEEMO 6, but rather types of coral that our crew has been working vigorously to measure, photograph, and document!

The crew have become proxy scientists for the National Undersea Research Center in the realm of coral science. Our NEEMO crews help add to the long term database on coral health in the Keys, and at the same time develop basic skills that will be required on their space flights: learning about something they probably don’t know much about, and being the hands and eyes of the “real” scientist who can’t be there. This week the crew embarked on 3 coral science dives, each with ExPOC support. During these dives, the aquanauts used transect lines to cordon off an area in which they worked. Within that area they then selected the largest corals to study. After selecting them, they measured the coral and recorded the data. Then they made an evaluation of the coral that they were studying and estimated the percent living vs. dead coral on each colony. They recorded their answers on underwater slates, and also took a short video clip of each coral so the species could be identified later. This field research, coupled with the dynamic underwater environment, creates a challenging task for our aquanauts and allows them to demonstrate and utilize both their diving and scientific skills. This was the most challenging diving they’ll do this mission, and it’s fitting that it be at the end when their skills have been honed to a high degree.

We hope that these dives provide NOAA with data that presents an overview of the health of various areas of the reef. Our data from this study will be compared to long term research at the site to evaluate the overall condition of the coral reef. Alarmingly, data has revealed that only 7.3% of the coral reef in the Florida Keys is living. Coral reefs are the rainforests of the oceans. An amazingly high percentage of the total species found in the seas live on coral reefs. In recent years coral reefs have declined dramatically around the world. Understanding this decline, and the human contributions to it, may give us the knowledge to reverse the trend. While our contribution to this study may be a small one, we are proud of the relationship that has developed between NASA and NOAA through this and the previous NASA NEEMO missions.

The basic tools of Coral Science

The NEEMO Aquanauts have seen a wide variety of sea life on the reef. From the grouper who tends to hang around near the habitat to the barracuda who made waterlab their new home, to the aileron-rolling nurse shark they observed on the night dive last night, the NEEMO 6 crew has embraced their new environment and taken the time to stop and enjoy the view. A large barracuda tends to hang out near the viewport which is near the galley table, and the crew has named him BOB (as in Big Ol’ Barracuda… actually, we understand Craig Cooper, the senior habitat technician on this mission, came up with this name. Clearly he’s been hanging out with us NASA people too long when he starts using acronyms to name the fish )
One of the crewmembers confided last night that he was “forever changed by this experience.” We know what he means. It starts out as mission designed to be a space analog and make better prepared astronauts (among other things.) But along the way you find that you’ve developed a bond with the vibrant, dynamic life cycle of the sea during the course of the mission. We know that they are very conflicted right now as their mission nears its end: excited to be joining their friends and family again, happy that they’ve accomplished a successful mission, and yet amazed that the time has flown by so quickly. They can scarcely believe it’s almost over, and we’re confident they’re all a little bit sad it has to end so soon.

This weekend ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke called and requested that we set up a videoconference for him to talk with the Topside Team and professionals at NURC. The ISS Flight Control team and Kea Foreman at NURC made it happen today – seamlessly. It was standing room only on our side, as all of his friends here eagerly greeted him. (It was floating room only on his side, of course.) Mike instinctively understands something that most people don’t realize: that for every successful mission like this, there are a lot of unsung heroes behind the scenes making it happen. In this case, the crew at NURC is definitely in that category. They keep Aquarius – the only operational undersea research facility in the world – operating year after year, and take justifiable pride in doing so. They provide two professional aquanauts – in this case Craig Cooper and Joe March – for each mission to keep our NASA crew healthy and safe. They man a watch desk 24/7 during each mission with great diligence. They’re ready at the drop of a hat to get on a boat on a stormy night and restart the generators on the Life Support Buoy. And they do it all with a smile. There’s not a one of them who can’t wear at least 3 hats with ease. Being recognized by Mike today was really a treat, because he’s seen first hand the professionalism they display, and he took the time to compliment them on it. It was a nice treat for the Topside Team, too, as we’ve all become fast friends with him.

We’re winding down… Thanks for staying with us!
- NEEMO Topside Team

Well, given the problems with the way-station, I decided the safe thing to do was to discontinue our work at the pinnacle and head on over to the Kamper area and continue our communication checks there. Even though we did not get to finish our work at the pinnacle, I felt the training we received was essential to our mission. We were faced with an unforeseen problem and we had to do what was right with respect to safety. We replanned our mission accordingly, working in conjunction with the mission control (ExPOC) and completed another portion of the tasks that we had been assigned. This is exactly what can happen on a flight and you can’t get any better training.

After we completed our work at Kamper, Wheels (Doug) and I headed off to the end of the northeast line to complete a comm check out at the way-station on that end. Time was getting short and the comm was poor, so we called it quits and headed back to the habitat. On the way back a sea turtle came cruising by, totally at ease with our presence. His flight through the water looked effortless as he made his way across the coral reef. A different medium to fly in, but flying nonetheless.
Our fifth day seemed so compressed with things to do that I felt we were constantly butting up against our schedule. Getting done with a dive, doffing (taking off) your equipment, strip out of your wetsuits, rinse and hang them, take a shower, dry off, slip some clothes on, hustle into the main lock, arrange the table, fix the camera, slip on a crew shirt, sit at the table and smile, because you are going to be on a video-teleconference to an education event hosted by the folks back in Houston. Whew… Sometimes you just can’t find enough time in the day. I felt yesterday we were all going full bore. Hustle, hustle, hustle! I think we could not have done more and I am incredibly proud of the team for rising to the occasion.

Today had a much better pace. Even though we hopped (well, crawled slowly would be a more apt description) out of our bunks at 0500, the day proved to be less stressful. We conducted a dawn dive to see how life around the reef changes with daybreak. Most of the fish that hang around the habitat at night find a place to hide among the coral during the day. There are a lot of lobster in the cracks and crevices. They are actually pretty easy to spot because their antennae stick out of the holes and dance around a bit. The most remarkable part of the dive, and perhaps this entire mission, came when a large sea turtle came gliding past us as we turned the corner on the S4 excursion line. It flew past me and passed Wheels by about 20 feet. It cruised off into the shadows only to reappear headed directly for Wheels. We all floated there mesmerized as it flew right up to Doug’s head, passing about six inches in front of his nose. Wheels reached his hand up to touch the belly and it turned straight for the surface, did an amazing about-face and zipped off into the distance. Nick had his camera at the ready so we hope we captured some pictures for others to enjoy as well.

The afternoon found us performing our first coral science dive which consists of a lot of measuring and photo-taking combined with meticulous notes. That’s Nick’s forte. He’s the excellent record keeper in the group. The one thing that we found doing coral science is that you have a much better opportunity to view the life living on the reef. We are right down in it looking at things looking back. Case in point, a large moray eel poked his head out of a hole about a foot or two from Wheel’s hand just as he put a marker down for a coral specimen. We took some video of the eel as it made its presence known. They have this interesting habit of opening and closing their mouth. While it looks menacing, it is actually just breathing. It’s the teeth that catch your attention, breathing or not. We gave him his space and went on about our work.

This evening was pretty relaxed. We have a DVD player on board so we hauled out the movie “Finding Nemo” for some entertainment. Kind of fun to pick out the fish that look familiar. Coop was calling out the types of fish as they came on the screen. Nice to have an expert on board!

One of the things that my parents like to do at their home in Spicewood, Texas is to sit on the front porch and watch the sun go down. All sorts of animals make their way across the stage of Texas hill country. You can make out the sounds of the whippoorwill, hear the locust in the trees, and catch the sounds of the coyotes across the valley. Tonight, I did something similar, but slightly different. I put on my mask, crawled out on to what we call the wet porch. The sun was down, the water was illuminated by the lights surrounding Aquarius, and I dipped my face beneath the surface of the water. There was not an absence of sound, rather the slow steady hum of some equipment on the habitat. Where my parents would expect the occasional animal to make its presence known, I faced a multitude of sea life, swimming in the light and shadows. Fish in all shapes and sizes, casting flashes of light like a mirrored ball on a dance floor. And it was a dance!! Fish were darting about in an endless cascade of movement. It was as pleasing as any moment I have spent on my parent’s porch. Just a view from a different world, but one where life is just as full and remarkable as the one above.

One of the unique things about our NEEMO missions is the communication system we are using that allows the aquanauts in the water to converse with a ‘mission control’ team (called the Advanced Operations Cadre), located in the Experimental Planning and Operations Center (ExPOC) near the Mission Control Center in Houston. The aquanauts are wearing wireless underwater communication units attached to a special full face mask that allows them to talk to each other, the habitat, and the ExPOC all while performing complex tasks in the water. For all of the EVAs, the ExPOC is monitoring the crew’s location and other vital information by talking directly with the crew.

In order to characterize how these units perform in this environment, we have developed a communications task where the aquanauts swim out to a specific area on the reef and perform a prescribed test protocol. Back in Houston, the ExPOC rates the quality of the communications and records the results. This exercise is analogous to the types of activities a newly arrived crew on the Moon or Mars might perform.

Frankly, this is one area we’ve really struggled with this mission. Some days the quality of the voice is crystal clear between the aquanauts and ExPOC. Other times it resembles a bad Verizon commercial: “Can you hear me now?!” It can be very frustrating to all involved. The crew, ExPOC, and NURC staff are to be commended for their patience and diligence in working these issues day after day. Fortunately, today was one of those great days for comm!

A couple of interesting Engineering experiments were conducted today. The first is an experiment in conjunction with Rice University to measure bone strength. Loss of bone strength is of great interest to NASA because it is a problem seen by our astronauts in space. In the case of astronauts, the lack of gravity, and the fact that the bones are never seeing any weight or force on them, leads them to lose strength. Use it or lose it. Therefore we schedule a couple of hours per day for our astronauts to counteract this problem. The end effect is very similar to osteoporosis, a disease where bones lose their strength, and which afflicts millions. The bones throughout your body are constantly being torn down and rebuilt throughout your life time. This is a natural process that keeps them healthy.

When one has osteoporosis, the teardown keeps happening, but the buildup slows down. The net effect is bone loss. At the cellular level, bones are really a latticework of connections – picture how construction scaffolding looks. You have lengthwise members that provide strength, and cross members that keep them from buckling.

Current methods of looking at bone health (Dexa scans, etc.) do a good job of showing bone density, but it turns out that’s not really a good indicator of bone strength. Where the bone is lost on this scaffold is just as important to overall strength as how much is lost. On NEEMO 6 we will be operationally evaluating a small, portable acoustic vibration device which can give a measure of bone strength. In addition, it is designed to be usable for a normal person with minimal training. It’s likely that this device will be used at home by osteoporosis patients in years to come to monitor the progress of their disease, and also the treatment effects.

The other experiment the crew worked on today was the Wireless Physiological Monitoring system. Tara has been outfitted with sensors for this device for the last 4 days. The objective is to determine the usefulness of a commercial wireless medical monitoring device inside a metal-walled habitat (similar to the other kind NASA uses!) It’s even accompanied her on some of her dives. The system can measure heart rate and overall activity, skin temperature, and core body temperature. Evaluating it in the Aquarius environment will give us valuable data on how this system will perform in a space analog situation.

Today we finished the water lab project. A mad scramble at the end to get it completed. The parts can go together a thousand different ways, but only one way is right. Rather than walking around the structure, we can swim over the top, through, and around. Sure beats having to stand in one place. Can you imagine working on your house the same way? Building a structure in neutral buoyancy is quite a challenge. When I have the chance to talk to people about the International Space Station, I try and paint a picture of what it is like to work in microgravity and build something as incredible as the International Space Station. What we have done in orbit over the past 16 assembly flights, is proof, without a doubt, that we are capable of building structures in the harshest environment known to humans. And we have done it without ever touching our feet to the ground! Think of how much easier that task will be when we one day do it on the Moon or on Mars.

Nick and Tara spent the afternoon tagging the northeast excursion line. They hustled out about 1,000-feet-worth of tagging before returning to the habitat. Right about the time they came back aboard, we were fortunate to have a televised conversation with the crew aboard the International Space Station. Mike Fincke and Gennady Padalka joined us via a video teleconference for about 15 minutes. What a fantastic opportunity for us, and it was great to hear Mike and Gennady’s voices. Mike commanded the second NEEMO mission, so he is very familiar with the habitat and all of the tasks that we are trying to accomplish down here. We treated them to a video tour of the habitat and some shots out the window at the fish congregating outside. Imagine how it must be to fly over the oceans of the world every 90 minutes and still talk with your friends beneath the sea. Pretty neat stuff that we get to do.

Our work here has been difficult, but worth the effort. The environment is very unforgiving and you have to be careful that you don’t make a mistake. You keep constant track of your air supply and you make sure that you can make it to one of the way-stations at the end of the excursion lines for a refill, if necessary. The difficulty about living down here for so long is that we do not have the option to go to the surface if we run out of air. You would think that would be the safest place. But for a diver who has spent more than a few hours at this depth, their bloodstream becomes saturated with nitrogen. By breathing compressed air at this depth for an extended period of time, you risk getting small nitrogen bubbles in your bloodstream if you swim to the surface. Look in a bottle of soda sometime before you open the lid. Notice any bubbles before you pop the top? Once you open the bottle, you equalize the pressure, actually decreasing the pressure inside the liquid, and look at what happens. More bubbles than you know what to do with. Imagine those same bubbles floating around your veins. The right bubble in the right place could block the blood flow to a vital organ. Not something I would want to happen to me. So, if I run out of air (I won’t let that happen) I’ll grab my diving buddy and borrow their air and make my way back to the habitat. That’s the safe place down here. Not the surface. So you may be asking yourself, how can you come back to the surface later, once the mission is complete? Check back in a few days and I will let you know.

Remember the big toothy barracuda? He’s still out there. Craig Cooper, one of our habitat technicians has a name for him: BOB, Big Old Barracuda…

Standing tall and proud on the shifting white sands meters from the Aquarius habitat lies a glistening new visitor to the reef today. At first glance, it may look like a jumbled maze of extruded polyvinyl chloride held together by bolts and wire ties, but this demon of the deep is actually a unique in-water crew task training exercise called Waterlab.

For the fifth mission in a row, NEEMO aquanauts have had the opportunity to assemble this unique and challenging structure. Designed as an EVA type task exercise, Waterlab has proven to be a favorite task of previous NEEMO crews. Given a simple set of schematics, hundreds of feet of pre-cut pieces of PVC and thousands of bolts and nuts, the crew is tasked with coming up with a plan to build the structure in a set of three stages (dives) and to follow all of the safety limitations put upon them. Sound simple? It’s not. Off the sea bottom, it stands almost 24 feet tall, and includes an intricate truss structure, solar array and antenna. Add in to the mix mild current, depth limitations (in this case ceiling), tool and parts management, changing environmental conditions, communication to the Mission Control team, and time and consumable limitations, and you have a surprisingly difficult and formidable task. Crew preparation and planning are keys to the success of this endeavor. You will be happy to learn that as in previous NEEMO missions, the crew was up to the task under the analytical guidance of Nick, who had obviously spent a fair amount of time strategizing on efficient ways to approach the task.

As in previous missions, we are happy to report that the seemingly homeless squadron of barracuda has again quickly taken up residence, this time appearing to prefer the solar array area.

From the beginning of the program, there has always been a strong relationship between the community of divers on the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (the enormous pool where we train astronauts for spacewalks) team and the NEEMO teams. The staff at the NBL has been gracious enough to provide all of our crews with medical and safety training as well as always being supportive of our dive requirements while in Houston. Therefore, we were very pleased when they accepted our offer to have two of the Oceaneering dive staff, Brent Fergurson and Greg Sims, support the mission from here in Key Largo. We are happy to report that the guys dove right into the task and were welcomed by the NURC staff immediately. They have helped transfer down hardware to the crew, scrubbed and performed maintenance on the habitat, “re-worked” our Waterlab tools, and done it all with a smile. That was on Monday…

Finally today, the Aquarius crew got a chance to talk to our old and mutual friend Mike Fincke, the Science Officer aboard the International Space Station. Mike was the Commander of the NEEMO 2 mission, and has always been very supportive of our efforts. Despite some technical difficulties, the two crews had a good chat and got to swap stories about two of the most “out of this world” experiences happening today. Our deepest thanks to the many people that helped make this linkup work today.

Until next time…

- NEEMO Topside Team

Another fabulously marvelous day beneath the waves. At least, I think there are waves up there. You can watch your bubbles float to the surface and make out the ripples on top. I have not been down here long enough to determine how big the sea state is, just by looking up. I guess you could eventually, but right now we just don’t have the time to spend looking up. Too much to do down here. That’s exactly the way it is in space. People are always curious what the Earth looks like from above. You spend so much time working, that to actually look at the window for pleasure is a rare occurrence. During my spacewalks, I had to make a conscious effort to look around and appreciate my surroundings. You are sometimes just too busy to really absorb the sights around you. If we had not delayed our landing on STS-113, I would not have taken a picture out of the window for pleasure. That’s like driving by the Grand Canyon with a camera by your side and not bothering to stop because you have to make Las Vegas by nightfall. Been there?

Our water-lab task is certainly a challenge. The pieces are not going together as we planned. We have had to improvise to make it work. Tomorrow, we will tackle the problem as a group of four. We will divide and conquer and we will succeed! This task is another good example of how hard an spacewalk can be. Worksite body position is everything. If you try and accept a position that is not optimal, it will come back to bite you. Steady yourself in your worksite, have your tools at hand, properly tethered, evaluate the hardware, position it accordingly, and blame the engineer when it doesn’t fit right. ;o)

This day has been challenging for all of us. A bit of frustration working the task, difficulties communicating with the ground team, the plan not coming together as we anticipated. Tomorrow we will use the lessons we learned today and make it better. We will rise to the occasion and make the most with what we have at hand. If we had lemons, we could make an ocean of lemonade!