NASA’s NEEMO-13 goes under the sea

William Atkins
Thursday, 26 July 2007 18:57

Science - Space

NASA is conducting the thirteenth of its undersea missions called NEEMO, short for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, between August 6 and 15, 2007. The mission will test procedures and equipment for future explorations of the Moon.

U.S. astronaut Nicholas Patrick, U.S. astronaut Richard Arnold, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and U.S. aerospace engineer Christopher Gerty are the four-person crew for the NEEMO-13 mission to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aquarius Underwater Laboratory.

Jim Buckley and Larry Ward, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, will provide engineering support for the crewmembers and Aquarius.

Aquarius is 45 feet in length and 13 feet in diameter, which is approximately the size of the living quarters aboard the International Space Station. It is sometimes referred to as an Innerspace Station. The project is a joint effort of the University of North Carolina, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and NOAA.

Aquarius is located about 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) off Key Largo, Florida, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It is situated next to deep coral reefs at a depth of 62 feet (19 meters) below the surface.

During the mission the crewmembers will build a communications tower, practice procedures and techniques for collecting lunar samples, investigate the wearability and other considerations for future spacesuit design, and conduct experiments on the physiology and human behavior of living in extreme environments (such as underwater and on inhospitable moons and planets).

The NOAA and University of North Carolina website for Aquarius  is found at: http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius/.

The NASA website for NEEMO is: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/.