We want to take this opportunity to thank our hosts here at the National Undersea Research Center. Their professionalism and commitment to safety is second to none. They take great care of the nation’s only undersea research facility, they keep a close eye on our crewmembers, and they take great care of our Topside team and visitors. So to the habitat technicians, Mark Hulsbeck and Dominic Landucci – a hearty “thank you” for teaching our crewmembers how to live as aquanauts. To Roger Garcia, a sincere thanks for the great Superlite training you gave them. To Craig Cooper and Jim Buckley, thanks for managing this (and all) NEEMO mission so professionally. And for the rest of the Aquarius staff who potted daily, manned the watchdesk 24/7, and did it all with a smile, we can’t thank you enough. Finally, special and sincere thanks to NURC Associate Director Otto Rutten for being our host and boat captain for the last 2 weeks. It wouldn’t have been possible without you all.

We can’t properly thank everyone who had a hand in making this mission successful, but a few key entities should be noted:

• The Constellation Program, for the funding that paid for NEEMO 10;
• The ExPOC team, for your preparation, long hours, and tireless perseverance;
• 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, for the manpower, support, and part of the crew;
• Dr. Mike Gernhardt, Kevin Rullman, and Jennifer Jadwick for the preparatory work on so many of the exploration objectives we accomplished;
• 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 11, a 7-day mission focused again on Lunar exploration concepts. It is scheduled for September 2006.

Thanks for your support and following along!

- NEEMO 10 Topside Team

This was my first time conducting a mission using the SuperLite 17 diving system from the habitat. It had its challenges and I learned a few things. The NASA/NOAA Aquanaut team seemed to be well pleased with the results of using SL-17’s to simulate moving about on the moon and mars. The helmet cameras and communications really enhanced their capabilities. The ROV provided an interesting addition to the habitat’s support capabilities. The camera shots it provided were great and I’m sure NASA’s EXPOC enjoyed controlling it from Houston.

On Thursday, we had the privilege of an audio/video link to the International Space Station. An Aquarius alumnae, Jeff Williams, was on the station. It’s truly impressive when you’re living below the ocean talking to friends living in space circling the earth. What a world!

From my perspective here in Aquarius, the collaboration between NASA, NOAA and UNCW was quite successful. Goals were met and exceeded. Karen Kohanowich, from NOAA’s National Undersea Research Program, will have some interesting sea stories to relate back at headquarters. It was a pleasure to have her and the rest of the crew aboard for this mission. Koichi did a fantastic job keeping his crew focused on a busy NASA time line. Drew and Karen Nyberg were always enthusiastic and willing to help the techs out when needed. Dominic, of the NURC crew, was indispensable in keeping the myriad “electronicals”, that were so important for this mission, on line.

Of course, no Aquarius mission can be conducted without topside support. The NASA topside team was very busy in supporting the Aquanaut diving scenarios. The NURC team provided the excellent professional support that has become expected from this experienced crew. Thanks to all and job well done!

Koichi worked late the night before reconfiguring the ROV from its ground rolling/sampling/collecting mode to a more streamlined flying mode (he removed the wheels, saddlebag and camera post). Each of the team members took a turn flying around the habitat. The ROV has a very useful “automatic hover” mode that made the operation easier; no one became tangled in umbilicals or got too close to the habitat. At the end of the time, the ROV watched the surface support divers try new techniques to pick up the weights and underwater equipment that remained at the worksite.

A ”tag-up” with the International Space Station astronauts was the highlight of the day. The team spoke with Jeff Williams, Pavel Vinogradov and Thomas Reiter as they orbited over Central America. Jeff had been a member of NEEMO 3 and had been scuba-trained by Mark Hulsbeck, so the crew had a number of NEEMO stories to share. Jeff reemphasized how similar the NEEMO mission was to his space experience, especially in matters of timeline, procedures and just getting along with folks in a confined space. The discussion will be broadcast on NASA TV and will be available on the NASA website.

After a quick visit and brief from the doc, our decompression hab tech Roger Garcia came down and got us all ready for our first hour of decompression on oxygen. The procedure entails everyone staying in their bunks breathing oxygen from a mask for three 20-minute periods. After five days in the wet suit helmets, the oxygen masks weren’t too bad, although there is a bit of resistance on the exhale. Dominic set up the “Pirates of the Caribbean” video to keep us entertained, so the hour went by very quickly.

Afterward, we had our first quiet evening and were able to catch up on journals, photos, and e-mail, plan tomorrow’s splash-up party, come up with new mixtures of dehydrated food for dinner and share sea stories. The best sea stories are those we made this week though, and we can’t wait to get out and tell them!

We envision that periodic inspections of a lunar habitat will be required just as they are on our current space vehicles, and that a robotic system will have a prominent role once again (because spacewalks carry some additional risk by their very nature.) For instance, we may notice that there’s a small leak because the pressure keeps slowly falling inside the habitat. A big enough leak into the vacuum of space might be visible from the outside – kind of like seeing your breath on a cold winter’s day. In our scenario, to play the role of a robotic arm we used our trusty little ROV again. The crew flew it all around the exterior of Aquarius, taking care not to hit Aquarius, but also getting close enough to see little details in the video camera. As for the vehicle inspection, the crew was able to successfully and confidently fly it all around their habitat, and get high resolution imagery while doing so.

The crew was also able to conduct a ship-to-ship video linkup with the International Space Station today. Former NEEMO 3 crew commander Jeff Williams is currently on the ISS as a member of the Expedition 13 crew, along with Pavel Vinogradov and Thomas Reiter. For his NEEMO mission, Jeff (like our NEEMO 10 crew) was trained by our NEEMO 10 aquanaut Mark Hulsbeck. The crew reported this opportunity to swap stories of sea and space was the highlight of their day.

However, the clock is running out, and today the crew will began the 16+ hour process called “decompression” in order to allow them to safely “splashup” tomorrow. This is what we call “deco” day. As you now know, they have spent the last 6 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.

Decompression 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 ~ 9:42 am on Friday, where we will be waiting on the boat to take them home under the expert supervision of NURC Associate Director Otto Rutten.

- NEEMO 10 Topside Team

The aquanauts took advantage of an extra hour of sleep and then got ready for their last dive of the mission. For K2 and Drew, it was also the longest at four hours. The dive started a little late because of helmet communications problems, but the divers made up the time. The first half of the dive consisted of the Exploration Planning and Operations Center (ExPOC) giving directions to the divers to find a simulated cargo ship that had crashed on the moon. The simulated cargo ships were actually two transponders that had been placed the day before. The divers tried two of the moon configurations of the potable life support system (PLSS) mockup suit during the exercise, and rated their performance during each excursion. A simple exercise like falling to your knees once can tell you one thing about a suit, but hiking around in it for an hour, dashing back and forth to tend wayward umbilicals, and using it while your mind is on something else can tell you something completely different. Although it was nowhere close to the sheer strength challenge of the Mars suit, exercising in the moon suit took a bit of effort and stamina.

The second part of the EVA (or extravehicular activity) consisted of repeating the task loop while weighted in the MK12 coverall suits. It was good not to be encumbered with a shoulder-mounted weight belt, but both divers were pretty spent by the time they completed the course six times. In general, all tasks except shoveling were easier with lighter weight. The final course was done with only ten pounds of weight, and both Drew and K2 took advantage of the weightlessness to try bounding and flying around the work area.

In the afternoon, Karen and Koichi completed the survey part of Scenario 1 on their final dive of the mission. They returned to ten of the reefs that the other team (K2 and Drew) had marked on Mission Day 3, and conducted more descriptive analysis of them, and then mapped most of the rest of the work area.

The remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) on this NEEMO mission performs the role of the robot. It can be a surface rover, or a free flyer (resembling the end of a robotic arm.) It can be controlled by the control center in Houston, or the in situ crew. As the mission continues, we have been experimenting with all options and documenting lessons learned to help answer the larger question of how best to split work. Following on the work done on NEEMO 9, we have designed exercises to answer these questions on NEEMO 10. Over the course of multiple missions we expect to have a significant database to help drive our lunar operations concepts.

Just as on the International Space Station, future inhabitants of the moon or Mars will need periodic cargo vehicles to resupply them with the essentials they need to live in such a harsh environment (air, water, food, etc.) The cargo vehicle will be targeted to land close (but not too close!) to their base. It’s also likely that the cargo vehicle will have a homing beacon. So a task astronauts may one day face will be to follow the homing beacon to their cargo vehicle with fresh supplies.

In the last two days we have exercised all of these concepts with different exercises. The Mission Control Center (MCC) team in Houston did a timed exercise to find out how long it took them to find different markers deployed nearby with the ROV. Later the suited crewmembers performed the same task, and the respective times were logged for comparison. Later the MCC team navigated the ROV around the natural obstacles of the reef to a homing beacon hidden hundreds of feet in the distance. This exercise was repeated with suited crewmembers being vectored by the MCC.

Obviously one of the primary science tasks on the moon or Mars will be collecting rock samples. We envision that the crew will find samples on their excursions, the planetary scientists in the MCC will analyze them remotely, and later send the crew back to those locations that looked most interesting to get more samples. This scenario was exercised today, with a planetary scientist from the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) group at Johnson Space Center playing her role.

Finally, the crew supported a first ever linkup with representatives of the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC). This government institution is charted with many of the same responsibilities as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States. It was a unique linkup by having representatives of JAMSTEC and NOAA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA together discussing common goals. Perhaps this will be the first step for more meaningful collaboration and partnerships between the agencies in the future.

Thanks for following along,
- NEEMO 10 Topside Team

The suits are this heavy because they contain life support, steel joint bearings, and 14 layers of pressure suits. On the moon, the weight was manageable. The data collected during the NEEMO mission will help let NASA know if it will be manageable on Mars.

The team conducted the same physical tests as they did for the moon configured suits. The aquanauts experienced a heavy workload during the exercise, feeling like a cross between Godzilla and a professional linebacker. Afterwards, they agreed that working with that amount of weight load on Mars would be extremely difficult.

While the divers were hard at work, ExPOC tried their hand at driving the remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) to find the marked flags. After a few exploratory trips up and down the sand field, they got the hang of it and found the first marker in short order. Although the current wasn’t as strong as yesterday, ExPOC could tell the difference between driving with and against it. Overall, the Scuttle was very stable and drove quite well both on the ground and in the air. Koichi was able to fly it up the 15 feet into the wet porch, and Karen showed off her ROV dexterity by grabbing a weight belt that was lying on the bottom. During a later dive, K2 and Karen put a few extra weights into its saddlebags to get an idea for its load limits. After about eight pounds it became mired in the sand.

K2 and Karen had a productive afternoon dive retrieving the numbered markers and getting the lay of the land for the second part of the survey exercise.

At lunchtime, K2 participated in a public affairs event that was set up by Fred Gorell of NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Program. It was a fun event and included questions from children at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore who were interested in everything from sharks to spacesuits.

It’s hard to believe we only have one dive left. Tomorrow will be more weight configuration and exploration scenarios, and then a non-diving day to prepare for the 17-hour decompression that starts Thursday evening.

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.

Finally, a cool picture taken at night.

- NEEMO 10 Topside Team

The second objective was to have the Exploration Planning Operations Center (ExPOC ), simulating Houston Mission Control, drive the remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) behind the divers to collect simulated lunar samples. K2 and Drew were the divers on this operation. K2 started out with the navigational device and marked the man-made objects in the sandy work area and the limits of the eastern coral reef boundary. In the south section of the work area, the reef becomes more tongue-and-groove oriented, roughly north/south, so the divers were especially careful to manage the umbilicals over the corals. The conditions were good, but a slight ½-knot current to the south was enough to tug the neutral umbilicals, and make walking ‘uphill’ back to the Aquarius more challenging than downhill. In all, the team mapped almost 20 coral outcrops. If the data is good, it will be a useful baseline for future Aquarius surveys.

The team got the “Scuttle” ROV off to a good start by staging its umbilical at the high-pressure air tanks, away from the habitat work area. The sandy bottom was perfect for driving the Scuttle in bottom crawl mode. Karen N. even perfected a wheelie to hop over the umbilical when necessary!

The exercise portion completed early, so K2 and Drew took advantage of the time to scout out the western edge of the coral reef to prepare for the second part of the exercise. They were eyed the whole time by a quiet but wary-looking silver barracuda.

Lunchtime was a whirlwind of activity as the crew showered, gulped down bags of food, and readied for a one hour public affairs event with Japanese and German filmmakers. Much of the discussion was in Japanese (Otter was surprised at how well Koichi spoke the language!), but the team was able to rave about the unique experience and the NASA/NOAA cooperation that makes it happen.

The afternoon exercise was a physical workout for the divers and a mental dance for the inside tender (IV). Koichi and Karen were outfitted in the moon simulation PLSS rigs and sent out to the sand patch to find ten marked and flagged weights – in order! The IV, K2, kept track of the location of the divers with transponders attached to their rigs (the ‘sending’ part of the transponder is located above the Aquarius’ southeast corner) and a computer program. When the team found a marker out of order, she marked the location so that she could send them back when it was in the right sequence. Aside from a little dancing with umbilicals, the team found nine of the ten markers with no trouble in the time allotted.

The second part of their task was the workout! The divers wore the Navy Mark 12 coverall suits, which have weights distributed on your hips, thighs, and shin areas. In order to test different spacesuit weights, the divers tried on six different weight distributions – in a ten-minute endurance test! The test included four laps of the 20-foot course, shoveling 15 shovelfuls of sand, placing ten weights in and out of stacked milk cartons and climbing a ladder. Karen and Koichi were great sports and powered through the task without complaint. Mike Gernhardt assured us all that our efforts would be integral to the success of the next spacesuit!

Drew and K2 took advantage of some timelined hookah dive time to find out which fish visit the Aquarius at night. There’s nothing like the view of the Aquarius at night when you’re on your own with a mask and regulator, looking back at this odd steel behemoth looming over you, lights skewed like a UFO. Tonight two sea turtles flew slowly through the lights, banking up towards the surface when they saw the strange black-suited diver with the light laser. The grates glow with blue florescent copepods, fish come out of nowhere, and Stella and Lucy take on a whole new aura as they float back and forth in front of the bedroom viewport. You’re back on the other side of the aquarium!

The tests consisted of conducting a number of activities in the different primary life support system (PLSS) CG configurations. The divers started with 35 pounds (30 pounds in the case of Karen Nyberg) on a shoulder-strapped weight belt, and then added the emergency ‘bail out bottle’ and the special PLSS testing rig. The first activity was four traverses of a 20-foot course, marked in the sand with yellow rope. The divers walked, ran, and jogged, and then repeated the trip one more time in their favorite ‘ambulatory mode.’ (Not crawling!) The second set of activities included kneeling and standing back up, falling on your face and getting up, picking up a rock, shoveling sand, and climbing a ladder that was secured to one of the habitat legs. After each of the activities, we had to rate how hard it was compared to doing it on land with no spacesuit in earth’s gravity or ’1G.’ A NASA table called a “Cooper-Harper index” was used for this.

Drew and Koichi were the first divers in the morning. K2 conducted the intravehicular (IV) coordination, and Karen N. worked with the remotely-operated vehicle. The first challenge was with the diver communications, first with electronic feedback, and then with low volume in the ‘green diver’ helmet. We were able to fix those, although green diver (Koichi) had to keep his breathing quiet if he wanted to hear anyone. Drew got started with the tasks, and was soon joined by the topside crew, who adjusted the PLSS weights between runs. Pretty soon both divers were hard at work, with K2 playing maestro and directing one diver to the ‘track’ and the other to the ladder, and vice versa. Of the six different weight configurations, one was especially challenging for the divers, and drew a couple of ‘ughs!’ Although the two got out of the wet porch a little late with the communication fixes, they were able to catch up and finished right on time for lunch.

We had a lunchtime visitor, Phil Renaud. Phil is the executive director of the Living Oceans Foundation, a non-profit organization that sponsors coral reef research and education. His group is interested in conducting an education event in the Aquarius in the near future, so the timing of his visit was great to give him a taste of Aquarius life.

K2 and Karen shared a dehydrated beef stew lunch and leapt back into the wetsuits for the afternoon CG work. The current had picked up just enough to keep tension on the umbilicals and make maneuvering around the working area difficult. About half-way through the mission, the support divers found a solution by bungee-cording the umbilicals to a spare gazebo at the edge of the work area. The difference in the CG diving was notable. The K’s had been making the best of the umbilical situation, but when it was relieved, they were surprised at how much more they were able to concentrate on conducting the tasks and rating them properly. Everyone agreed that the CG exercises were physically challenging, and have a new appreciation for what the heavy Mars configuration will be like.

During the evening planning conference, the aquanauts and the topside crew discussed the day’s events and agreed on a few procedures to keep things smooth during the next CG events. Seemingly small things, like conducting the events in a consistent order, help keep everyone on the same page as the operation progresses.

While K2, Drew and Koichi entered data and conducted post-mission cleanup, Karen took advantage of the time to take a dusk hookah dive around the habitat. It was nice to have some time for nothing more than admiring the wildlife that calls Aquarius home.

Sunset brought the Japanese documentary crew out for some night filming, so Koichi donned the hookah mask and joined them outside. He took the opportunity to show off his mask-removal exercises and flash his pearly whites in front of the dinner window.