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

The weekend allowed some time for the crew to relax, talk to their families, and celebrate Mother’s Day. As you can see, it was a multi-cultural event!

On the science front, it focused on answering life sciences questions, as the crew donated urine, blood, and saliva to be analyzed back here in the lab. Two of the questions we are trying to answer include a study on oxidative damage during a 12-day saturation mission and immune function changes during a spaceflight analog mission.

You may remember that a similar immune study was undertaken during the NEEMO 5 mission. During that mission, there was evidence of oxidative damage and changes in iron metabolism – as determined by biological markers in blood and urine – similar to that observed during long duration space flight, and this mission allows a thorough follow up. Similarly, during NEEMO 5 we established the validity of the Aquarius facility and the pressures of a NEEMO mission to measure immune function changes, physiological stress, viral reactivation and viral specific immunity using blood samples obtained at several different time points during the mission. This phenomenon is called spaceflight-associated immune dysregulation (SAID). It is thought to be caused by multiple variables found in space missions, and also in NEEMO missions, including: confinement, isolation, health risk (saturation diving), physiological stress, and disrupted circadian rhythms. It’s very important to NASA to understand these physiological changes, in order to ensure crew health on long duration space missions.

On the Robotics front, we finished using the RAVEN robot and brought it back up safely (and dryly!) to the surface, and transferred down the M7 surgical robot. You may remember the M7 as the robot that participated in NEEMO 9. SRI has been working on telepresence surgery technology since the 1980s with a goal to develop a battlefield-based trauma surgery system that could be operated remotely by a surgeon. Telepresence technology can help medical units deliver care to critically wounded soldiers right into a combat zone dramatically increasing their chance for survival. The NEEMO mission demonstrates how the M7 could operate in a space environment. It participated in the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) annual conference in Nashville over the weekend, where both Army personnel and the general public had a chance to drive the robot located in the Aquarius habitat.

You’ve probably gotten the sense by now of how complicated these NEEMO missions are. We often get questions related to how they get supported. If you guessed that there are a lot of people behind the scenes making it happen, you are correct. A good example of how the behind-the-scenes machine works is illustrated by considering for a moment the blood, urine, and saliva samples mentioned earlier. How do we get them from under the sea, keep their biological integrity intact, and get them processed in a timely fashion?!

First, the crew needs to be trained to give these samples, including the blood draws from each other. Luckily, with 2 M.D.s on this mission, that wasn’t a challenge. Then, lots of empty containers need to be sent down and pre-labeled to contain the samples. Biohazard ice chests, full from daily deliveries of ice, contain the samples until they can be brought to the surface, so that the hormones and other important markers don’t degrade before analysis. Divers swim these empty containers and full samples between a support boat and the habitat in small “pots”, which are watertight and can slowly vent in order to equalize the pressure regardless of which direction it traveled. Once back on shore, the samples are rushed to a lab here at the NURC base, where lab technicians promptly analyze them. On a day like Sunday, which included blood, urine, and saliva samples, a team of 3 were in the lab for hours doing their analyses. Similar processes support every need the NEEMO crew has, from food and water to technical equipment, and everything in between.

Thanks for joining us,
NEEMO 12 Topside Team

This morning as we awoke, we knew that today would be a bittersweet day. It would be our last full day in the habitat. The wet porch is now clear of all our diving equipment and wet suits. Drs. Tim and Joe drew our blood this morning for the next of our physiologic and metabolic studies. We’ll do more studies and “debrief” (detailed discussion of the mission) with our mission support team when we return to land. The frantic pace of the timeline has now shifted to ensuring we have every piece and part of our equipment accounted for and organized for shipping to the surface. We packed all of our gear. The potting divers have appeared in more numbers, loading all of our equipment into the large pressurized cans, ensuring the delicate electronics are protected and that most of the air is out of our packing bags as they will otherwise greatly expand when they reach the surface.

A highlight of our mission today was a “ship to ship” call from the Aquarius Habitat up to the International Space Station! The ISS had just passed over the Florida Keys, and with the great help of our Public Affairs Office and Mission Control back at the Johnson Space Center, we were able to talk directly with the ISS crew. Suni Williams, a former Aquarius crew member herself, has been living on the ISS for the past six months. We had a great conversation with her, sharing her memories of living here and on the similarities on living there on the ISS. Suni was very happy to see our large picture of her dog “Gorby” on the wall near the viewport. What an experience to link up good friends and fellow explorers, three above the Earth and six in the ocean!

Mark Hulspeck, our mission’s lead NURC dive trainer, has now joined us for the preparation for the decompression phase of our mission. He also brought down some awesome lasagna prepared by his wife Sue, which we promptly had for dinner! Dr. Peacock, from the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit also visited the habitat for a quick medical checkup and to brief us to watch for any signs of oxygen toxicity. Mark and James prepared all the valves and gas supplies for the decompression.

Our habitat has now become a very large dive chamber for our 17-hour decompression. We’ve closed the heavy entry lock door and begun to slowly vent our air to the water outside. Lying in our bunks and under our blankets to stay warm, we breathed pure oxygen for three 20-minute periods to begin to purge the nitrogen from our bodies. Our ears continue to “pop” as if we were in airplanes, as the inside pressure has now reached us halfway to the surface pressure, even though we have not physically moved from the depth. If we were to move too rapidly to the surface, all that nitrogen would rapidly come out of our bodies’ tissues, bubble up in our blood streams, collect in our joints and cause significant pain. By moving slowly to the surface, our bodies will be able to purge that nitrogen by breathing it out through our lungs and equalizing with the atmosphere in the habitat, which also slowly rises to surface pressure. It is really important to slow our ascent even more as we reach the surface, as the magnitude of the pressure difference increases there, and so the risk of decompression sickness.

We had one last official duty and that was to take our crew photo. Then the rest of the afternoon was spent watching a movie and just spending time looking out our beautiful viewports to get one last look at the wonderful environment that we have been living in for the last 11 days.

Day 4 dawned with a break from the robotics while the RAVEN was transferred back to the surface, and the M-7 was transferred down. Meanwhile the new task on the plate was the construction of “Lunasea”. Lunasea is a generic construction task, used to exercise scenarios like doing construction on the lunar surface while suited, and moving the structure long distances. It promotes crew skills of planning out a complex task, handing over from team to team involved in the multiple construction activities required to finish it, following a procedure, and working in a cumbersome environment. A real-life example of such a construction task on the Moon would be a communications relay tower.

Finally, the crew and local Mission Control team got a chance to do some piloting exercises with the undersea robot we call “Scuttle”. Scuttle can be a surface rover, or a free flyer (resembling the end of a robotic arm.) It can be controlled by the control center thousands of miles away, or the in situ crew. As the mission continues we will be experimenting with all options and documenting lessons learned to help answer the larger question of how best to split work between the ground-based control team and crew. Over the course of multiple missions we expect to have a significant database to help drive our lunar ops concepts. In the picture below it’s being driven by the crew inside Aquarius. It’s camera is giving them situational awareness as the EVA proceeds beyond their visibility.

Day 5 we were back to focusing on Life Sciences and Exploration objectives. One of the experiments that we are investigating measures and monitors crew metabolic rate changes using a Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis (PUMA) developed by the NASA Glenn Research Center. Future space exploration mission extravehicular activities will require three independent measurements of metabolic rate and because there is currently no adequate way to directly measure metabolic rate, this study will be a key evaluation of the PUMA calculations and will also provide the opportunity to assess hardware form, fit and function. This mission is the first use of this equipment in a real-time mission environment, and the crew feedback will help optimize future versions for use in space.

Remember those locations of geological interest that were marked a few days ago? After analysis by our resident planetary geologist, several sites were marked for return and more detailed in situ analysis. Below Tim can be seen using a core sample analysis tool, while Joe acts as the coordinator of EVA events from Aquarius.

A final picture of the inside of Aquarius for your enjoyment:

Thanks for following along!

The start of another great day in Aquarius was met by the realization that we were about to reach the mid-point of our NEEMO 12 mission. It’s hard to believe that our mission is half over since it seems just like yesterday that we splashed down! This milestone serves as a reminder to all of us of how fortunate we are to experience life as an aquanaut. Heide, our space veteran, has stated that so far the mission environment is very similar to a real space mission, minus the zero-G effect of course.

Saturday morning started with our 24 hour nutrition assessment followed by making the necessary preparations needed for exploration scenario number one. This simulated moon walk involved returning to predetermined locations in sector B as a result of an earlier survey we performed. Joe provided the intra-vehicular activity (IVA) support and helped suit up the extravehicular activity (EVA) team consisting of Heide and Tim. José prepared the Remote Operations Vehicle (ROV) that would serve as support to the EVA team. The ROV would be controlled by both José from the habitat and also remotely from the topside Mission Control Center (MCC). The EVA team was very successful at sampling three of the five predetermined sites. Two of the sites were aborted due to a combination of poor visibility and the inability of the ROV to navigate through narrow winding coral. Photo documentation and sampling were highly successful at these sites. ROV operations from both Aquarius and the topside MCC were also highly successful and well documented.

Immediately after this EVA, Tim converted our bunk room into a remote surgical laboratory. The objectives involved the testing of image-guided supervisory-controlled autonomous robotic surgery. The SRI M7 robot was set up with an ultrasound probe on its left arm and an aspirating needle on its right arm. The robot’s depth perspective stereo-vision camera system focused on an ultrasound phantom. Using the ultrasound probe’s image, a surgeon at the American Telemedicine Association meeting in Nashville, Tenn., used the image to penetrate a blood vessel in the phantom. Perhaps even more impressive was the robot’s subsequent ability to insert the needle into the simulated blood vessel all by itself—this will help the surgeon perform surgery just like autopilot helps a pilot fly an airplane. This ability will go a long way in getting around the latency issues associated with remote operations of a robot for medical applications during long space flights to the moon and beyond.

Saturday afternoon brought us another EVA exercise that basically consisted of the disassembly and reassembly of the main modules of our simulated communication tower. Heide provided IVA support for this activity while Joe and José made up the EVA team. Once fully disassembled, the EVA team moved every major component to a more “water current” friendly location by installing a temporary set of wheels and essentially driving each module to the new location. José was heard saying, “It doesn’t drive like my father’s Lincoln Continental but it’ll do the job!” Once there, Joe and José reassembled the components, raised the tower and secured the structure. The EVA team finished all objectives, with no time to spare, and were able to raise the tower and see the NEEMO flag flap with the current in all its glory! Time running out, Joe was overly anxious to return to Aquarius base. However, José somehow managed to slow Joe down so that both EVA aquanauts could in Jose’s words “enjoy the moment!”
The rest of Saturday afternoon consisted of our daily tasks of performing photo and video management, plant care and photo documentation, and the transfer of data to topside MCC. The one activity that was different from all other evenings was the scheduled night dive where all four aquanauts would venture on excursion lines beyond the limits of Aquarius’ light and into the dark abyss! Well maybe not totally into the abyss as we were limited to a depth of 95 feet but it sure got pretty dark! Before our excursion, we decided as a crew not to use communication gear as this made for a more peaceful dive creating an environment upon which we could reflect upon this amazing journey! It was also the first time we donned diver fins since our arrival to Aquarius, and swimming during this dive seemed a bit strange being that the crew has acclimated to the simulated moon walks on the ocean bottom. During this night dive, the team ran across a giant sting ray that was feeding on the sandy bottom near where our simulated communication tower used to be located. We also saw plenty of lobsters, moray eels, and a plethora of different species of fish. The only disappointment to this night dive was that visibility was not at its best and thus limited our ability to enjoy the full beauty of the coral reefs and its nocturnal tenants. Dinner tonight was a special event as the topside team had the National Underwater Research Center (NURC) support divers bring down a pizza via a special water proof potting container. We can honestly say that pizza tastes just as good at 60 feet below the ocean!

We were greeted Sunday morning by bloodthirsty doctor crewmates overly anxious to perform our scheduled seventh day blood draw. The morning was blocked off as “off duty” for the crew. We took advantage of this free time by catching up on regular housekeeping chores such as cleaning and vacuuming the habitat and creating “Happy Mother’s Day” greeting cards that we placed in front of the main lock camera. We created 4 different cards in English, Spanish, German, and Japanese!

In the early afternoon we took the ROV, minus its wheel chassis and mast camera, for an afternoon spin. Actually we were tasked to perform an external vehicle survey of the habitat Aquarius but just the same it seemed like taking Dad’s newly washed car for a Sunday afternoon joyride! Joe, Tim and Jose took turns at the controls as we first inspected the starboard (right) side of the Aquarius and then moved on to the port (left) side. Joe even came “mano a mano” with a pretty big fish. There he was in the rover, with Joe at the controls, facing the fish and waiting to see who blinked first. Well we’re not sure that fish actually blink but we can tell you that the fish moved first! We filmed the ROV’s every move so I guess you can say we have the film to prove it. Yes, technology triumphs once again! It’s also important to point out that absolutely no fish were harmed during the filming of this event. All kidding aside, we were actually very successful in performing a complete vehicle survey from all sides including top and bottom. This activity is very important as we can envision a similar ROV being deployed once we land on the moon as we would be very interested in surveying our lunar lander for any possible damage.

Later Sunday afternoon we had our scheduled personal family conference (PFC) where most crew members had the opportunity to hold a live video conference with their immediate family members. We had a special Mother’s Day surprise for the families that attended the PFC as a NEEMO designed cake was unveiled and presented to the families. The cake was devoured by the young members of the crew’s families. Having these PFC’s is an important aspect of expedition living as activities such as these go a long way in lifting crew morale.

Finally, the afternoon’s activities came to a conclusion with Tim once again converting our bunk room into a remote surgical laboratory. The SRI M7 robot was set up for a live demo at the American Telemedicine Association meeting in Nashville, Tenn. We demonstrated the SRI M7 robot acquiring an ultrasound image of a phantom and penetrating a blood vessel for the Acting Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command and the Assistant Director of the U.S. Army Telemedicine Advance Technology Research Center. Boy, talk about getting this demo right! Such a robot could help save the lives and limbs of soldiers on the battlefield or astronauts who are millions of miles from the nearest hospital on the way to Mars. Kudos to both our crewmates Dr. Tim Broderick and computer technology extraordinaire Dominic Landucci for pulling off this great feat and demonstrating telesurgery at its finest!

What a neat way to wake up every morning: literally hundreds of fish, some schooling, others darting at each other in an absolutely wonderful dance. Our Aquarius habitat projects light out into dark turquoise green waters that attract our friends throughout the night. The currents that have been moving so fast during the day due to the full moon seem to slacken by morning. The fish are really relaxed. Our habitat technician, James, is the first to wake up every morning and makes his morning radio calls to our friends at the topside support desk who are watching over us through the days and nights. The rest of us rise at 6 a.m. and begin some of the physiological and psychological testing such as cortisol levels and sleep and fatigue questionnaires.

Breakfast was nice as James and Dom shared huge breakfast burritos with us. Others had oatmeal and the ever present dehydrated foods. The cocoa and coffee seem to be going fast, as everyone enjoys a nice warm drink in the morning. Breakfast was easy and everyone seems to want to prepare each other’s meals. The rest of the morning chores: do the dishes, brush our teeth, clean up…Twenty minutes later and we are off to the races, setting up robots, getting our updated instructions from our mission support personnel for the day and preparing our dive equipment.

You might have seen us each holding small white boxes. These devices are cognitive readiness tests that use simple timers to check our reflexes and response times. Interestingly these times do seem to have increased after our initial splashdown and after each strenuous activity. One of the new experiments that was brought down yesterday was the PUMA, which stands for Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis. The unit came to us on a mannequin head, so it can be strange to see a mannequin head sitting on the counter. Jose was the first to use this device, which detected his oxygen, carbon dioxide, and with some complex calculations, his overall metabolic rate. While Jose and Heide were running the PUMA experiment, Joe, Tim and James turned the bunk room into a robotic surgical ward, yet again, only this time for the SRI M7 robot.

After the morning medical experiments, Heide and Jose got dressed in dive gear and prepared for another coral survey. Getting ready to go diving is a lot like getting ready to go do any other work. However, in this case, in addition to taking the tools that we need, like a navigation unit to mark the places we find interesting and cameras to take pictures, we also have to protect ourselves against the cold and take our own air with us. Although the water is relatively warm this time of year (about 79-80 deg F), we still rapidly lose the warmth in our bodies as the water conducts the heat away from us, especially when we are in the water for 2-1/2 hours. We have to take our air supply with us as well of course. So, it takes a bit of extra time to get out the door in the morning to go to work.

Heide and Jose’s dive this morning was great fun. The visibility was less this morning than we had had earlier in the week and we had difficulty with our radio communications but Joe was able to follow along with the navigation computer and maintain awareness of their position. At the start of every dive, we test an alarm system that uses sound waves through the water to signal the divers to return to the habitat, in case there was an emergency. After the test was completed, Heide and Jose explored out through the coral, taking plenty of pictures of interesting coral for our topside crew to evaluate and make recommendations to return to for further study. The intent of our exploration is to simulate how astronauts would venture out for surveys on the moon. For these exploration scenarios, the aquanaut crews are walking on the bottom and not swimming, just like we would be on the moon.

In the afternoon, Jose and Tim went to specified locations. They revisited some of the locations which Joe and Tim had documented the day before. After Joe and Tim’s dive on Thursday, we sent the data and pictures regarding the different locations to the simulated Mission Control. They, in turn, analyzed the data and selected various sites for us to go back to and collect more data, just like we would do on the moon for exploration. Jose and Tim got suited up for the dive and were ready to go. Unfortunately, the navigation equipment was not working properly. So, we resorted to the “old fashioned” way of navigating by a chart, which had the points highlighted. Heide directed as the intravehicular crew person, taking notes on their findings and making sure that they found each site correctly (Jose and Tim were wearing an underwater tracking device so we knew their position from the habitat). Meanwhile, Joe continued the work with the robotic group, this time in Nashville, Tennessee, and ensured the video and computers were running well when the remote surgeons tested the equipment. It is really something to see these robots in action, as they respond to a surgeon’s hands that are a thousand miles away. This robot is also special as it will not only allow “tele-surgery,” meaning that it responds to commands remotely, but also it can run and perform some surgical procedures on its own. Even our habitat technicians, who are busy all day with maintenance duties inside and outside, are interested in what we are doing and are eager to help. Dom takes a break from his daily outside duties to peek in on the progress inside.

Lots of work and mission still remaining. Thank you all for tuning in on the website and on our dives. We are really happy that you have been able to join us for our exploration mission. There are also so many, many people who are supporting the mission here in Key Largo, and back at the Johnson Space Center as well. We’re glad that you can see our work and hope you are able to see some of these really beautiful fish as well.