NASA Crew Goes Underwater To Study Outer Space

Four National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) crew- members will look to the deep seas this summer to help prepare for journeys into deep space. They will use an undersea laboratory to study what it may be like to live and work in other extreme environments, such as the Moon and Mars.

Astronaut John Herrington will lead the crew in an undersea mission that will field-test equipment and technology for the International Space Station as part of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project in the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory, off the coast of Key Largo, Florida.

University of North Carolina at Wilmington systems engineers will work with the NASA crew in Aquarius. The facility is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Aquarius is similar in size to the International Space Station’s living quarters.

This will be the sixth NASA mission to Aquarius to practice long- duration life in space. It will study life in extreme environments in support of future human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit, evaluate equipment that may be used on the space station and perform scientific research on the human body and coral reefs. The crew also will build undersea structures to simulate space station assembly.

A buoy on the surface that provides power, life-support and communications capabilities supports Aquarius. A shore-based mission control for the Aquarius laboratory in Florida, and a control room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, will monitor the crew’s activities. /st/

Copyright Compass Publications, Inc. Aug 2004