Training Day 4 marked the last full day of training for the NEEMO 14 crew.  The crew, along with our mission manager, Bill Todd, and our photographer/support diver/man of many talents, Karl, dove down to the mockups for further orientation with the lander and rover.  They conducted an “engineering evaluation,” which basically means that they ran through some of the underwater operations to become more familiar with how to do the tasks, and to see if there were any changes that needed to happen to make things go more smoothly during the actual mission.  The rover mockup has been upgraded to include free-spinning wheels, and an interesting finding during the engineering evaluation was that the wheels are so buoyant, when they tried to move the rover up to the lander deck, the buoyancy of the wheels threw off the balance of the system, making it harder to control than we originally imagined!  The rover mockup is really awesome, especially with the new wheels, so stay tuned to see how we work with it over the course of the mission! ☺

 
Our crew runs through the steps to lift the rover from the sea floor to the lander deck.

Topside, the mission support team got their first view of the inside of the Aquarius habitat as the hab techs continued to do checkouts to ensure that everything was ready for the mission.  Our Mobile Mission Control Center is fully equipped with computers and screens throughout, and our awesome comm. team connected us to the Aquarius camera views provided by NURC so that we can observe all of the underwater activities.  (You too can look at these by going to: http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius/thumb_cam.htm!) 

After a very long day of training and preparation tasks, Training Day 4 came to a close with a deep sigh of relief from the team…It was a VERY busy Friday!

The weekend continued to be a flurry of activity as the final hours prior to the mission ticked away.  The crew spent several hours practicing how they will do real-time communication during the extravehicular activities (EVAs).  While two Aquanauts are outside of Aquarius on EVA, the other two crewmembers will be very busy inside the habitat taking data to ensure that all of our science and engineering objectives are successfully completed.  This sounds easy at first, but the communications get pretty complicated when you think about four people trying to talk to each other at the same time.  So, the Commander and crew sat down and walked through their communication strategy, really coming together as a TEAM.  The crew also walked through each day of the mission timeline, to make sure that they were all ready for every task that the topside support team would throw at them! ☺

Sunday evening we met once again as a full team, topside support and crew, to run through any final details of the mission.  There were only a few things left to be worked, but overall we were ready.  When I left the Mobile Mission Control Center, I felt both anxious and excited…this mission is going to be REALLY AWESOME!  The team has planned an incredible mission full of fantastic activities that are educational, scientific, and in line with NASA’s exploration goals. 

WE ARE GO FOR NEEMO 14!


 
The mission support team is topside in Key Largo, working inside NASA’s Mobile Mission Control Center to track the NEEMO 14 mission activities.
 

Training Day 3 was an exciting day for the crew…it was time to put classroom training to the test as the Aquanauts proved that they could complete equipment setup, checkouts, and dives with the Superlite helmet and equipment. They teamed up (Chris and Steve, Tom and Andrew) and worked through their procedures to practice the very tasks that they will need to complete each day when they conduct their underwater extravehicular activities (EVAs).

Chris looks over Steve’s helmet connections to make sure that everything will work when Steve is underwater.

Tom makes sure that Andrew’s helmet is ready for the dive. The Superlite helmet fits very tight to your head and has a mask that fits over your nose and mouth. The helmet allows you to breathe normally underwater and has a full communications system so that you can talk back and forth with your dive buddy.

Topside, our team of NURC divers and mission support divers were taught how to move the arms and weights on the center of gravity (CG) rig. This is the equipment that the Aquanauts will wear during several of their EVAs, as they test how changing the location of weights on your back changes how you move. In the afternoon, a crew of divers went out to the dive site to set up the “circuit,” which is basically an underwater obstacle course where the crew will do things like kneel, pick up and move rocks, shovel, and do other tasks that NASA envisions that crewmembers will have to do on surface exploration missions.

This is the CG rig that the Aquanauts will wear while evaluating how changing the location of weights on your back alters how you move. The NURC divers are learning how to move the arms of the CG rig up and down to change where the weights will be placed during underwater testing.

It was a beautiful day for diving… the water was calm, the visibility was amazing, and the crew successfully completed their Superlite checkout dives!

By Heather Paul
Analog Lead Technical Liaison for Education and Public Outreach
Currently in Key Largo, Florida!

NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 14 is officially under way! The mission doesn’t start until next Monday (5/10), but the mission support team and crew are busy at work in Key Largo this week completing final preparations, checkouts, and crew training. Yesterday the crew and a few others (including me!) completed a swim test at a local pool, and then it was off to the open water so that the crew could complete their SCUBA checkout and exploration dives.

More information to come as we get closer to the big event! Stay tuned…

By Heather Paul
Analog Lead Technical Liaison for Education and Public Outreach
Currently in Key Largo, Florida!

Training Day 2 was a classroom day for the crew, and another big prep day for the mission support team. This is one of the most complex NEEMO missions to date, so, as much as the team loves to be in the water, classroom training, getting hands-on practice with the equipment while topside, and solid mission planning is all very critical for mission success!

The crew training focused on procedures, equipment checkouts, and fitchecks. Basically, it’s like they were back in school as they learned about the equipment they will use during the mission and how it all works. During their underwater “spacewalks”, they will wear special dive helmets called “Superlites” that allow you to breathe and speak normally. They also worked through emergency procedures, discussed communication operations, and made sure that their dive suits and vests fit properly. In addition, the crew learned about the “CG rig” and how it will be used to test how changing the location of weight on your back alters how you move and work.

Having good procedures is an important part of any mission, whether that mission is in space, or under water. For the mission support team, finishing the mission procedures was the focus of training day 2. We also did a bit of housekeeping, as we continued to set up the communications trailer to be our “mission control center.”

A few of the folks from the mission support team (including me!) also learned how to drive a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in the canal by the NURC facility where we are stationed. We will use an ROV during the mission as part of our science exploration activities, but also a few lucky schools will help us navigate the underwater world during some of our education events! Driving the ROV was really fun, and a bit like playing a video game…I was very proud that I was able to navigate around, and I even retrieved a piece of trash and brought it to the surface! (That’s me, cleaning up this world one piece of debris at a time…it all counts you know!)

The training ROV

Jack is driving underwater!

This is really going to be an awesome mission…the crew is pumped, the mission team is excited, and there’s a feeling in the air as the clock ticks on and counts us down to Monday’s splashdown. If you haven’t checked out our pictures yet, make sure to stop by our flickr page!

On to training day 3….

By Heather Paul
Analog Lead Technical Liaison for Education and Public Outreach
Currently in Key Largo, Florida!

From 5 – 8 May 2010, the Mars Institute’s Dr Pascal Lee and his teammates Joe Amarualik, John W. Schutt, Jesse Weaver, Jean-Christophe Jeauffre, and Mark Carroll will be completing the Northwest Passage Drive Expedition. They will be journeying from Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island, to the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station, Devon Island, High Arctic, aboard the Moon-1 Humvee Rover, a simulator for future pressurized rovers that will be used in long distance human exploration on the Moon and Mars.

Follow their scientific odyssey here as they drive a final 200 km across the Arctic, including the critical 35 km stretch of rough sea-ice separating Cornwallis Island from Devon Island.

For more information and to follow this awesome journey, check out the following sites: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmpresearchstation/

http://www.marsonearth.org/

http://twitter.com/NWP_Drive

By Amanda Knight
Analog Technical Liaison Support for EPO NASA/JSC