NASA Administrator To Speak With NEEMO 16 Crew During Underwater 'Spacewalk'

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington     

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

 

Brandi Dean

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov

WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will speak with astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, commander of the 16th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission, and her fellow crewmate Timothy Peake of the European Space Agency at 4:10 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 20 as they perform their final "spacewalk" of the mission, 63 feet below the ocean's surface.

The administrator's call to the crew will air live on NASA Television.

The NEEMO 16 crew has been simulating asteroid exploration on the ocean floor since June 11. They are scheduled to return to the surface June 22, after living for 12 days inside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius Underwater Laboratory off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. At the successful completion of the mission, they will have performed 16 underwater spacewalks.

The NEEMO 16 mission is focusing on three particular challenges of an asteroid mission. The crew is investigating communication delays, restraint and translation techniques and optimum crew size. The isolation and microgravity environment of the ocean floor allows the NEEMO 16 crew to study and test concepts for how future exploration of asteroids could be conducted.

Metcalf-Lindenburger and Peake are accompanied inside Aquarius by Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Steven Squyres of Cornell University. Squyres also was a member of NEEMO 15.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For more information on the NEEMO 16 mission, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/neemo.

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NASA Announces 16th Undersea Exploration Mission Dates and Crew

Michael Braukus

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1979

michael.j.braukus@nasa.gov

 

Brandi Dean

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov

WASHINGTON -- An international team of aquanauts will travel again to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to simulate a visit to an asteroid in the 16th expedition of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO).

This year's NEEMO mission will begin June 11. It will build on lessons learned from 2011's NEEMO 15 mission and test innovative solutions to engineering challenges allowing astronauts to eventually explore asteroids.

"We're trying to look out into the future and understand how we'd operate on an asteroid," said Mike Gernhardt, NASA astronaut and NEEMO principal investigator. "You don't want to make a bunch of guesses about what you'll need and then get to the asteroid to find out it won't work the way you thought it would. NEEMO helps give us the information we need to make informed decisions now."

This NEEMO expedition will focus on three areas: communication delays, restraint and translation techniques, and optimum crew size. The crew of four will spend 12 days living 63 feet below the Atlantic Ocean's surface on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius Reef Base undersea research habitat off the coast of Key Largo, Fla.

NASA astronaut and former space shuttle crew member Dottie M. Metcalf-Lindenburger will lead the crew. She will be joined by fellow astronauts Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Timothy Peake of the European Space Agency and Cornell University professor Steven Squyres, who was also a NEEMO 15 crew member.

To request interviews with the NEEMO 16 crew during the mission, contact Brandi Dean of NASA at brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov, Rosita Suenson of the European Space Agency at Rosita.Suenson@esa.int, Akiko Niizeki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at niizeki.akiko@jaxa.jp or Fred Gorell of NOAA at fred.gorell@noaa.gov.

The NEEMO mission is sponsored by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Program. For more information about NEEMO and the crew and links to follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter, visit http://www.nasa.gov/neemo.

For more information about NASA analog field tests, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs.

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NEEMO 15

NEEMO 15 Commander Shannon Walker (NASA) and fellow aquanaut David Saint-Jacques (Canadian Space Agency) use a small telescoping boom as a means of translating across a simulated asteroid surface. Each end of the small boom can be anchored to the surface by either magnets or tethers and the astronauts can traverse the surface by alternating anchor points. Various translation techniques are being tested during this 13-day NEEMO mission.

NEEMO, which stands for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, is one facet of NASA's Analog and Field Testing Missions. As NASA plans to expand human spaceflight and robotic exploration beyond low Earth orbit, astronauts are being trained to meet these challenges. Future destinations may include the moon, near Earth asteroids and Mars and its moons.

To prepare for the challenge of exploring these destinations in space, NASA conducts missions here on Earth, in remote locations that have physical similarities to extreme space environments.

Image Credit: NASA/Mark Widick

NASA Announces 15th Undersea Exploration Mission Date And Crew

J.D. Harrington/ Michael J. Braukus

Headquarters, Washington

 

Brandi Dean

Johnson Space Center, Houston

WASHINGTON -- An international crew of astronauts will venture into the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 17 to test innovative solutions to engineering challenges during a crewed mission to an asteroid.

NASA astronaut and former International Space Station crew member Shannon Walker will lead the 15th expedition of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), a13-day undersea mission aboard the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory near Key Largo, Fla.  Aquarius is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

The NEEMO crew also includes Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques. They are members of the 2009 NASA astronaut class. Rounding out the crew is Steven Squyres of Cornell University, James Talacek and Nate Bender of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Squyres is the scientific principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Project. Talacek and Bender are professional aquanauts.

In addition, NASA astronauts Stan Love, Richard Arnold and Mike Gernhardt, all veteran spacewalkers, will participate in the NEEMO mission from the DeepWorker submersible, which they will pilot. The DeepWorker is a small submarine used as an underwater stand-in for the Space Exploration Vehicle, which might someday be used to explore the surface of an asteroid.

Jeremy Hansen and Jeanette Epps, members of the 2009 astronaut class, are the capsule communicators for the mission. Hansen is from the Canadian Space Agency, and Epps from NASA.

To request interviews with the NEEMO 15 crew during the mission, contact Brandi Dean at brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov; Julie Simard of the Canadian Space Agency at 450-926-4370; Takefumi Wakamatsu of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at 281-792-7486; or Fred Gorell of NOAA at 301-734-1010.

NEEMO 15 will be the first of the undersea missions to simulate a visit to an asteroid. In May, a team of aquanauts set the stage for the tests by working through some of the concepts in an effort to improve efficiency.

"NEEMO 15 will require complex choreography between the submarines and aquanauts living and working in their undersea home," said Bill Todd, NEEMO project manager. "Researching the challenges of exploring an asteroid surface in the undersea realm will be exciting for fans of exploration pioneers Cousteau and Armstrong alike."

NEEMO 15 will investigate three aspects of a mission to an asteroid: how to anchor to the surface; how to move around; and how best to collect data. Unlike the moon or Mars, an asteroid would have little, if any, gravity to hold astronauts or vehicles, so an anchor will be necessary.

NEEMO 15 will evaluate different anchoring methods and how to connect the multiple anchors to form pathways. The aquanauts and engineers will evaluate different strategies for deploying instruments and moving along a surface without gravity.

For more information about NEEMO and links to follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter, visit http://www.nasa.gov/neemo.

For more information about NASA field tests, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs.

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Engineering Tests Leading The Way For NASA's Next Neemo Mission

J.D. Harrington/Michael Braukus

Headquarters, Washington                               

 

Brandi Dean

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- To determine how best to explore asteroids in the future, NASA scientists and engineers are taking their experiments underwater in the 15th expedition of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO.

This year's NEEMO expedition, which will include the usual compliment of astronauts and engineers, is slated for October. Since this is the first mission to simulate a trip to an asteroid, there's a lot of work to do before the mission can start. To prepare, engineers have journeyed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius Underwater Laboratory near Key Largo, Fla., to work through some of the concepts that will be tested in the fall.

"Even experts don't know what the surface of an asteroid is going to be like," said NEEMO Project Manager Bill Todd. "There may be asteroids that we don't even know about yet that we'll be visiting. So we're figuring out the best way to do that."

NEEMO 15 will investigate three aspects of a mission to an asteroid: how to anchor to the surface; how to move around; and how best to collect data. Unlike the moon or Mars, an asteroid would have little, if any, gravity to hold astronauts or vehicles, so an anchor would be necessary. NEEMO 15 will evaluate different anchoring methods and how to connect the multiple anchors to form pathways. The aquanauts and engineers will study whether it's more efficient to join the anchors in a straight line or set them up similar to the spokes of a wagon wheel.

Starting Tuesday, May 10, engineers and scientists will begin work to ensure they're prepared for rigorous testing of these concepts in October. During these preliminary tests, they will work on the ocean floor, but will not stay inside the Aquarius. This allows participants to come to the surface and retool equipment if necessary.

For more information on NEEMO, visit http://www.nasa.gov/neemo.

For more information on NASA analogs, missions that simulate conditions on other planetary bodies, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/.

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Engineering Tests Leading The Way For NASA's Next Neemo Mission

J.D. Harrington/Michael Braukus

Headquarters, Washington                               

 

Brandi Dean

Johnson Space Center, Houston

 

HOUSTON -- To determine how best to explore asteroids in the future, NASA scientists and engineers are taking their experiments underwater in the 15th expedition of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO.

This year's NEEMO expedition, which will include the usual compliment of astronauts and engineers, is slated for October. Since this is the first mission to simulate a trip to an asteroid, there's a lot of work to do before the mission can start. To prepare, engineers have journeyed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius Underwater Laboratory near Key Largo, Fla., to work through some of the concepts that will be tested in the fall.

"Even experts don't know what the surface of an asteroid is going to be like," said NEEMO Project Manager Bill Todd. "There may be asteroids that we don't even know about yet that we'll be visiting. So we're figuring out the best way to do that."

NEEMO 15 will investigate three aspects of a mission to an asteroid: how to anchor to the surface; how to move around; and how best to collect data. Unlike the moon or Mars, an asteroid would have little, if any, gravity to hold astronauts or vehicles, so an anchor would be necessary. NEEMO 15 will evaluate different anchoring methods and how to connect the multiple anchors to form pathways. The aquanauts and engineers will study whether it's more efficient to join the anchors in a straight line or set them up similar to the spokes of a wagon wheel.

Starting Tuesday, May 10, engineers and scientists will begin work to ensure they're prepared for rigorous testing of these concepts in October. During these preliminary tests, they will work on the ocean floor, but will not stay inside the Aquarius. This allows participants to come to the surface and retool equipment if necessary.

For more information on NEEMO, visit http://www.nasa.gov/neemo.

For more information on NASA analogs, missions that simulate conditions on other planetary bodies, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/.

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