August 6, 2007
Splash-down Day
We packed up the remainder of our belongings this morning, suited up, and made the 40-minute boat ride to start our mission. Shortly after our arrival at Conch Reef, we made our way down the descent line to our new home – Aquarius. Some of our belongings were waiting for us when we arrived. The remainder that we packed up earlier arrived at Aquarius not long after our arrival. All of our belongings were “potted down” to us. In other words, they were delivered by divers in heavy-duty, waterproof containers. We spent the remainder of the morning moving into our bunks, setting up our equipment, and spending a lot of time looking out the window at our new neighbors on the reef. One of the interesting things we noticed upon unpacking was how much smaller most of our bags were. Anything that could be compressed by the 50 feet of water sitting on top of us was compressed!
After a quick lunch of dehydrated stew, we began getting ready for our first major activity. We made our way to the wet-porch, suited up, then made our first excursion, or as we call it in the space business extra-vehicular activity (EVA for short), into our new environment. Wearing our helmets, we used our buoyancy to offset our weight, allowing us to walk on the seafloor much like the Apollo astronauts walked on the moon in one-sixth gravity. In fact, most folks at NASA agree that this is a close as one can get to walking on the moon without actually building a rocket and flying there. We are planning on doing both, but for the time being, we are going to enjoy our time exploring the reefs of Carpenter Basin, 10 miles south of Key Largo.
One of the striking things about Aquarius is how much it has become an actual living and breathing part of the reef. It is heavily covered with corals, sponges and all manner of encrusting organisms which in turn prey upon and feed the wide variety of fishes that make Aquarius home. When you approach Aquarius from the outside, you quickly recognize that you are looking at a complete ecosystem. When you are inside of Aquarius looking out one of the many portals, you realize you are now part of that reef ecosystem.
As we wrap up our day and prepare for tomorrow – dinner comes and goes, the various experiments get completed, and tomorrow’s tasks are reviewed – all under the watchful eye of the magnificent Goliath Groupers who watch our every move through the window. There are many similarities between our lives on Aquarius and those of our friends on Expedition 15 on the International Space Station, but while they spend their free time looking down at Earth below, we spend ours looking out at Earth around us.
We’re looking forward to a great mission. We’ll keep you informed as it unfolds!
Written by Aquanaut Crew
We continue to have a very smooth NEEMO 13 mission unfolding in the Carpenter Basin here in the Atlantic Ocean near Key Largo. We have shifted gears from evaluations of center of gravity and optimal weight for future lunar space suits, to life sciences experiments and crew autonomous exploration operations.
In future space missions to the Moon or Mars, crewmembers will be given more autonomy to plan and carry out their activities due to the long distances involved from the home planet, and the nature of the exploration mission objectives to explore planetary surfaces and conduct geological and physiological research. Questionnaires used in this portion of this study will focus on mood and interpersonal interactions between crewmembers isolated and confined environments as well as mission control personnel (topside team).
One of the goals of the observational study is to test a method and tool that monitors performance, stress and sleep-wake patterns in astronauts (aquanauts) living in an extreme environment in conditions similar to those that crewmembers experience aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. This is interesting to researchers because they see similar physiological responses in crewmembers on NEEMO missions to those they see for astronauts on space missions. Additional performance, stress and sleep-wake patterns data will be collected on the topside team. This goal will be accomplished through three specific aims: (1) test the usefulness of an embedded task performances measures of cognitive performance known as the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT), (2) Salivary cortisol measures of stress as a physiocological correlate of stress response, and (3) Monitor sleep-wake patterns using ambulatory technology – wrist actigraphs (actiwatches) and sleep logs/diaries.
Nick using the PVT
Operationally, we are simulating a 20-minute time delay for the remainder of the mission, which represents an average time for a communication signal to travel between the Earth and Mars. So, we are no longer able to communicate freely with each other. Instead, we are using textual methods (e.g., email, summary reports) and video files to stay in sync with one another. The lessons we are learning are already piling up!Finally, additional research from this mission will provide NASA with habitability and human factors data. Since our modules on the Moon will face the same types of size and volume constraints as Aquarius does, there is a wealth of information that can be gained from studying it.
Written by Topside Team
Some additional pictures from the last couple of days: 
The mission is unfolding smoothly so far on Mission Day 3, a testimony to hard work and professionalism of the people involved. As a veteran aquanaut, Nick Patrick is setting a high bar commanding this mission. Meanwhile, our friends aboard the Shuttle Endeavour successfully launched tonight on their way to the International Space Station. Commanding that mission is 2-time NEEMO aquanaut Scott Kelly, along with Dr. Dave Williams, another 2-time NEEMO aquanaut.The primary tasks for these first days involved objectives from the NASA EVA Physiology, Systems and Performance (EPSP) Project . As they have on 4 previous missions, they are using this opportunity to expand an ongoing study to understand how both the center of gravity (CG) and the weight of a spacesuit affect performance in conducting exploration tasks in simulated lunar gravity. Based on data collected in these missions and other NASA based studies, the NASA engineering team is in the process of refining their space suit design to limit the CG effects and optimize total weight. For the CG task, the aquanauts wear a reconfigurable backpack developed by the EPSP team working in conjunction with the Crew and Thermal Systems engineers. Then they perform the activities representative of lunar exploration tasks for different CG configurations, and evaluate how poorly or well they can do each task. These tasks include: timed walks and jogs, ascending and descending a 20 degree ramp, kneeling, falling and recovering, picking up rocks, shoveling and climbing ladders. This study includes three different CG locations currently under consideration for the new lunar suits, and for comparison, an additional CG config from the suits we used 3 decades ago for Apollo. In addition to understanding the effect of CG on crew performance, we are also evaluating the importance of overall suit weight. Having a space suit which is too light may result in poor traction for performing tasks. However, if the space suit is too heavy, just moving in it can be tiring, much less doing work in it. The same exploration tasks listed above will be performed with 5 different suit weights to understand the interrelationships between CG and weight in performing Lunar Exploration tasks. This is an important consideration in the design of the future space suit and portable life support system.
Written by Topside Team
Greetings!
An intense training week for the 13th NEEMO mission has concluded successfully and the crew “splashed down” today at 10:09 am. They will live for 10 days aboard Aquarius, the only operational undersea research habitat in the world. This marks the 90th mission for Aquarius.
The Mission Commander is Nick Patrick, a veteran Shuttle astronaut, accompanied by NASA Educator-Astronaut Ricky Arnold and Satoshi Furukawa, a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency Astronaut. Chris Gerty, a Systems Integration Engineer from the Constellation Program rounds out the NASA crew. Jim Buckley and Dewey Smith, both professional aquanauts from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, complete the crew and will operate Aquarius and oversee safety during the mission.
NEEMO 13 is being sponsored by the Constellation Program at NASA. The Mission Director is Marc Reagan, along with the rest of the Topside Team: NEEMO Project Lead Bill Todd, Monika Schultz, Ron Stueber, Dan Sedej, Bill Frank, Zach Jones, Rick Sanchez, Pam Baskin, and Mary Sue Bell from JSC, and Adrian Ecker from the University of Pennsylvania. Aquarius is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) facility operated by the University of North Carolina Wilmington. It is located near Key Largo, Florida at the National Undersea Research Center (NURC).The major goals of this goals of this mission are to take advantage of the vast similarities between the sea floor and the lunar surface to investigate advanced spacesuit design and explore lunar operations concepts. A suite of Space Life Sciences experiments will be accomplished as well, ranging from behavioral health and performance to immunology and nutrition. The results will directly support the investigation of open questions and operational concepts that will enable NASA to return humans to the moon as part of the President’s Vision for Space Exploration.
Written by Topside Team
