NEEMO

NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, is a NASA analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in the Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research station, for up to three weeks at a time in preparation for future space exploration.

Aquarius is an underwater habitat 3.5 miles (5.6 km) off Key Largo, Florida, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It is deployed on the ocean floor next to deep coral reefs 62 feet (19 m) below the surface.

NASA has used it since 2001 for a series of space exploration simulation missions, usually lasting 7 to 14 days, with space research mainly conducted by international astronauts. The mission had cost about 500 million U.S. dollars. The crew members are called aquanauts (as they live underwater at depth pressure for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface), and they perform EVAs in the underwater environment. A technique known as saturation diving allows the aquanauts to live and work underwater for days or weeks at a time. After twenty four hours underwater at any depth, the human body becomes saturated with dissolved gas. With saturation diving, divers can accurately predict exactly how much time they need to decompress before returning to the surface. This information limits the risk of decompression sickness. By living in the Aquarius habitat and working at the same depth on the ocean floor, NEEMO crews are able to remain underwater for the duration of their mission.

For NASA, the Aquarius habitat and its surroundings provide a convincing analog for space exploration. Much like space, the undersea world is a hostile, alien place for humans to live. NEEMO crew members experience some of the same challenges there that they would on a distant asteroid, planet (i.e. Mars) or Moon. During NEEMO missions, the aquanauts are able to simulate living on a spacecraft and test spacewalk techniques for future space missions. Working in space and underwater environments requires extensive planning and sophisticated equipment. The underwater condition has the additional benefit of allowing NASA to "weight" the aquanauts to simulate different gravity environments.

Until 2012, Aquarius was owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the National Undersea Research Center (NURC) at the University of North Carolina–Wilmington as a marine biology study base.

Since 2013, Aquarius is owned by Florida International University (FIU). As part of the FIU Marine Education and Research Initiative, the Medina Aquarius Program is dedicated to the study and preservation of marine ecosystems worldwide and is enhancing the scope and impact of FIU on research, educational outreach, technology development, and professional training. At the heart of the program is the Aquarius Reef Base.

Missions

NEEMO 1: October 21–27, 2001

Floorplan of Aquarius.
The first NEEMO crew, L–R: in front, Mike López-Alegría and Bill Todd, in back, Mike Gernhardt and Dave Williams

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 2: May 13–20, 2002

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

  • Thor Dunmire United States
  • Ryan Snow United States

NEEMO 3: July 15–21, 2002

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

  • Byron Croker United States
  • Michael Smith United States

NEEMO 4: September 23–27, 2002

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 5 crew members are pictured in the bunkroom aboard the Aquarius research habitat. Top, L–R: Reisman, Hwang; Middle: Whitson, Anderson; Bottom: Talacek, Snow.

NEEMO 5: June 16–29, 2003

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 6: July 12–21, 2004

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 7: October 11–21, 2004

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 8: April 20–22, 2005

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 9: April 3–20, 2006

The NEEMO 9 crew: Left to right (rear): Broderick, Williams; front: Stott, Garan.

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

  • James F. Buckley United States
  • Ross Hein United States
  • Marc Reagan, Mission Director

NEEMO 10: July 22–28, 2006

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 11: September 16–22, 2006

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 12: May 7–18, 2007

NEEMO 12 aquanaut Broderick works with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), called Scuttle.

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 13: August 6–15, 2007

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

NURC Support Crew:

NEEMO 14: May 10–23, 2010

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

NEEMO 15: October 20–26, 2011

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

DeepWorker 2000 submersible crew:

NEEMO 16: June 11–22, 2012

The NEEMO 16 crew: Left to right: Peake, Squyres, Brown, Yui, Metcalf-Lindenburger; inside habitat: Talacek.

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

DeepWorker 2000 submersible crew:

SEATEST II: September 9–13, 2013

Space Environment Analog for Testing EVA Systems and Training ( NEEMO 17 ) Designation skipped

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

NEEMO 18: July 21–29, 2014

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Professional habitat technicians, Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

NEEMO 19: September 7–13, 2014

The NEEMO 19 crew: Left to right: Hansen, Stevenin, Mogensen, Bresnik; inside habitat: Hulsbeck, LaPete.

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

NEEMO 20: July 20 – August 2, 2015

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Professional habitat technicians, Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

NEEMO 20 mission objective was to simulate the time delays associated with sending and receiving commands between controllers on Earth and astronauts on Mars. Additional EVAs will simulate working on the surface of an asteroid, and the use of the DeepWorker submersible as an underwater stand-in for the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle.

NEEMO 21: July 21 – August 5, 2016

NEEMO 21 crew members outside the Aquarius base

The NEEMO 21 mission was scheduled to begin July 18, 2016 and conclude August 3, 2016; however, the mission start was shifted to July 21, 2016 as a result of unfavorable weather conditions.

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Professional habitat technicians, Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

  • Hank Stark (FIU)
  • Sean Moore (FIU)

NEEMO 22: June 18–27, 2017

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

Professional habitat technicians, Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

NEEMO 23: June 10–22, 2019

NASA all-female Aquanaut Crew:

  • Samantha Cristoforetti, ESA, Commander
  • Jessica Watkins, NASA astronaut candidate
  • Csilla Ari D’Agostino, a neurobiologist at the University of South Florida
  • Shirley Pomponi, Marine biologist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute of Florida Atlantic University

Professional habitat technicians, Aquarius Reef Base support crew:

See also

References

Media related to NEEMO at Wikimedia Commons

24°57′00″N 80°27′13″W / 24.95000°N 80.45361°W / 24.95000; -80.45361

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