(Mark T. Vande Hei and Thomas Pesquet collecting core samples – Photo Credit: NASA/NEEMO)
Four astronauts have ‘splashed up’ from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, ending the 18th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) expedition.
Accompanied by lab technicians, the crew spent nine days conducting research 62 feet below the surface of the ocean, living in Florida International University’s Aquarius undersea research habitat.
Commanded by Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Jeanette Epps and Mark Vande Hei from NASA as well as Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency investigated tools, techniques and technologies that will benefit astronauts aboard future International Space Station missions and long-duration space explorations.
(Conceptual tool testing – Photo Credit: NASA/NEEMO)
The mission’s scientific investigations looked into behavioural health and performance, human health and countermeasures, and human factors and habitability while living under the sea.
Studies examined team cohesion and the crew’s ability to perform tasks while coping with isolation, confinement, remoteness, circadian rhythm disruption, communication delays and work overload.
“NEEMO is about working and living together,” Commander Hoshide said. “Not just the six aquanauts inside the habitat, but also with the entire team on the surface, the support divers, and the researchers. It is a great spaceflight analog in that aspect, too. Teamwork is the key to success, and we worked well. I am grateful to have worked with such professionals, who made my work as the NEEMO18 commander easy and enjoyable.”
(Commander Hoshide – Photo Credit: NASA/NEEMO)
“NEEMO 18 was a fantastic opportunity for me to participate in the development of technologies and techniques for future exploration,” explained Vande Hei. “That by itself would have been plenty, but on top of that I got to experience life in an environment that most of us don’t get to experience as well as enjoy the company of some fantastic teammates, both on the crew and in the ground control and support team.”
(Thomas Pesquet standing on Jeanette J. Epps’ shoulders – Photo Credit: Jeanette J. Epps/NASA/NEEMO)
“I consider myself extremely lucky to have ‘flown’ this mission with such professional and talented crewmembers,” Pesquet stated. “I learned so much by just watching them go about their busy schedule, solve complex tasks, think out-of-the-box. Our commander Aki also made a point of always linking what happened down here to what he experienced up there in space, and the parallels were constantly made, with invaluable knowledge passed on to the rest of the crew.”
For the crew members, the experience of living beneath the waves is something they will not soon forget. In Vande Hei’s words, “Personally, I’ll never forget the womb-like peace of being out of the habitat, diving, at night, lights off. The sparks of luminescence that occurred when I clapped my hands or the puffs of that luminescence that spontaneously occurred made it seem like I was on another planet.”
The extreme undersea environment is as close to being in space as possible, thus making such missions an excellent opportunity to test aspects of future spaceflight missions. Parallels between life underwater and in space were apparent throughout the mission.
The NEEMO 18 mission completed all of their scientific and exploration objectives. Now NASA will return to the underwater habitat on Sept. 7 for the seven-day NEEMO 19 mission.
(Jeanette J. Epps and Mark T. Vande Hei inside the habitat, with Paolo Nespoli outside – Photo Credit: Akihiko Hoshide/NASA/NEEMO)
The NEEMO 19 mission will focus on evaluating the European Space Agency’s telementoring operations. Telementoring is when a crew member is given instruction for a task by a remotely located expert who is virtually present via a video and voice connection.
NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik will lead this second mission, accompanied by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and Herve Stevenin, the ESA’s Head of Extravehicular Activity Training at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany.
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