Fri, Oct 28, 2011
Underwater Training Cut Short By Late-Season Storm
Due to the predicted path of Hurricane Rina, the 15th NASA
Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, ended earlier
than planned. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) operates the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory and the agency
determined Rina posed a risk to the safety of the mission taking
place near Key Largo, Florida.
The six aquanauts of the NEEMO crew left the facility, where
they lived for five days, and returned to the surface of the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in Key Largo on Wednesday
morning.
The six-member NEEMO crew - Commander and NASA astronaut Shannon
Walker; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi;
Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques; Steven Squyres
of Cornell University; and James Talacek and Nate Bender of the
University of North Carolina Wilmington - kicked off this year's
mission on Oct. 20, after an initial delay caused by another storm
in the area.
NASA File Image
The NEEMO crew conducted six underwater spacewalks and one day
of scientific research inside the Aquarius habitat. They also
completed four days of scientific asteroid exploration analog
operations using the deep worker submersibles that stood in for the
Space Exploration Vehicle. This year's mission was the first NEEMO
to focus on operational concepts that would be used in human
exploration of an asteroid.
"Despite the length, we accomplished a significant amount of
research," said NEEMO Project Manager Bill Todd. "We're already
learning lessons from working in this environment."
The remainder of NEEMO 15 will not be rescheduled, and all media
events are cancelled. The NEEMO 16 mission is tentatively set for
the summer of 2012.
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