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the 16th edition of NASA's extreme

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environment mission operations mission

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is going on down off the coast of Key

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Largo Florida as we speak at last about

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two weeks the Aquarius undersea

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laboratory is the site of that mission

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we have an entire NASA and international

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partner crew living and working down

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there for the two week time period

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practicing what it's like to live and

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work out into the deepest reaches of

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space including asteroids in one day on

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to Mars we are joined now by one of the

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top side crew members astronaut Stan

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love a friend to all of us there that is

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part of the Nemo mission he is working

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with the rest of the crew helping the

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astronauts and our international partner

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astronauts down below so Stan welcome

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let us know how things are going down

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there at an emo 16 things are growing

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great down here at Nemo 16 we've been

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down here for about a week now getting

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everything ready to send the crew under

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the sea for their mission and yesterday

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their mission began with the space

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flight that would start at crew quarters

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and the crew would get into a van and

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drive out to the launch pad and launch

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into space here it was something pretty

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similar the crew left their dormitory

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room got onto a boat and drove out to

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the habitat which is about five miles

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offshore here from Key Largo Florida in

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about 60 feet of water and they splashed

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down now in the Apollo program

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splashdown meant the capsule came down

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and landed in the water you're an emo

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splashdown means the crew puts on scuba

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gear swims down 60 feet into the habitat

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climbs inside the air pressure inside

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that habitat is high high enough to

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counteract the pressure of the water

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outside so there's just a hole in the

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floor of a habitat with water and they

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come up through that hole and they're in

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the dry air of the habitat and they're

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going to live and work there for 12 days

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before they return to the surface stay

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and talk about training in the water now

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you get a spacewalk back on sts-1 22 and

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obviously you know anytime we do

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spacewalks we practice in the water here

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in Houston you know the water I think

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sort of is the closest thing we have

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here on earth to the environments of

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space so talk a little bit about what

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it's like to train what are the benefits

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of it in what are you know how are they

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not similar well the water as you say is

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the best simulator we have for doing a

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space walk in in weightlessness if you

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put on your suit get underwater you can

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hang weights on the suit so that you are

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neutrally buoyant which means that if

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you let go of anything you didn't you

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neither float toward the surface nor

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sink toward the bottom and if you're

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very good with the way outs as they are

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in our neutral buoyancy laboratory they

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can even make you neutrally or neutral

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in position which means that you can put

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your body into any orientation and

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you'll stay there rather than

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immediately writing up with your head up

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and your feet down and that's a great

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analog for space and that's what they're

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doing here at aquarius instead of the

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neutral buoyancy lab pool which is big

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it's not as big as the ocean so they're

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in the big pool we don't have fish in

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the NBL so it's kind of fun to watch the

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spacewalks going on underwater here at

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Key Largo and see the fish swimming by

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the camera when you used to seeing

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something similar in the neutral

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buoyancy lab but without the fish the

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similarities are too many to list it

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really is very very good training and

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without that kind of training i don't

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think we would be able to do much in

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space because the weightless environment

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and the constrictions of the suit make

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it very hard to do anything and sending

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an unprepared person up there I think

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would be dooming them to failure there

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are a couple of things that aren't the

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same when you come out of the airlock in

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Aquarius you have a steel grid deck

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about three feet below your below you

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and you swim out into you know blue

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water with the coral reef below you and

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fish swimming by in the neutral buoyancy

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laboratory you come out of the mock-up

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airlock hatch and you are looking at a

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cement pool floor about eight feet below

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you you come out of the real airlock in

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the space station you've got the earth

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going by 220 miles below 17,000 miles

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per hour so that's pretty different

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another thing is that no matter how well

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they weigh you out in the neutral

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buoyancy laboratory your body does tend

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to have a preferred orientation and

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usually that's with your head a little

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bit up and your feet a little bit down

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and if you do nothing you'll sort of end

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up in that position in space that is not

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true you don't have a preferred

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orientation and the tiniest touch of

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anything touch a handrail anything on

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the space station will not only move

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your body but it will start your body

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rotating and that is something that we

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cannot exactly simulate in the NBL and

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something that all first-time

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spacewalkers have to contend with and I

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certainly spent quite a lot of time and

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energy contending with it on my first

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base law so let's talk about each of the

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crew members tell us kind of what

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they're each doing down there and you

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know did they keep a normal schedule

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down there or is it something that sort

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of mimics what a mission would be they

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are keeping a mission timeline just like

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we would for a spaceflight in fact it's

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very much like a space shuttle flight in

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terms of the duration of the mission the

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difference is they are doing a lot more

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EV a every crew member is going outside

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at least once a day they always go out

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in pairs in case one runs into a problem

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their partner can help them out so we

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have a pair of space walkers going out

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in the morning then they come back in

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for lunch and then the other two people

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who are inside in the morning go out for

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a spacewalk in the afternoon on a

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shuttle flight you will have at most one

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spacewalk per day again we go out in

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pairs and we do add most five total

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spacewalks on an entire 12 or 13 de

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mission so these guys are going to be

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doing I don't know 16 EVs I guess they

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have eight days of e VA and 2e VA's per

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day now that's easy in Aquarius because

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again all you do is put on your dive

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suit which only takes a few minutes and

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you drop down into that what they call

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the wet porch that hole in the floor

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where it's just the ocean water there

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and then they swim out in there and

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they're working whereas for a space

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shuttle EV a it takes much longer to put

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on the spacesuit you need help to do it

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because it's very big and bulky

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difficult to get into there are there's

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a couple hours worth of system checks

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that you have to do to make sure that

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the suit is working right every time you

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go outside before you go and also the

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crew for a real space lock has to

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pre-breathe oxygen for a while before

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they get in the suit because when you

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get outside in that sea

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the air pressure in the suit is only

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about a third of the pressure in the

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room you're sitting in right now and if

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you go from normal pressure to one-third

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pressure really quickly you get the

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bends which is a risk that divers face

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and it's a risk that the habitat crew is

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getting around because the air pressure

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they're breathing in the habitat is just

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the same as the water pressure outside

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so they never have to worry about

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getting bent now there's a price they

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pay for that you get a lot of efficiency

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you can just go into the habitat come

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out of the habitat you don't have to

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worry about the bends at all but right

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now that crew has been down there for 24

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hours and their tissue their their

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bodies are saturated with nitrogen gas

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so if one of them went to the surface

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they would certainly get nitrogen gas

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bubbles coming out of solution in their

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bodies that can cause incredible pain in

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the joints it can give you gas bubbles

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in your bloodstream which you don't want

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it can cause problems in the lung it can

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cause problems in the nervous system

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very bad news so their motto here

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Aquarius is the surface is not an option

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much like at Johnson Space Center we

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have failure is not an option for the

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Mission Control teams so Stan talk about

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what you guys are doing up on topside I

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mean there's an entire team of people

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there you know supporting the crew

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that's down below so what do you guys do

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in each day and you know what are you

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sort of serving it sort of a pseudo

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Mission Control team or what is it we

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have actually a mobile Mission Control

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Center which is a converted semi-trailer

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and we can take it anywhere on the

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continent the last time I saw it in

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action it was a pavilion Lake British

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Columbia about 4,500 miles from here

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almost as far as you can get from

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Florida and still be in North America

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and that trailer is set up exactly Lanka

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Mission Control there are consoles for

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different operators each of whom is in

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charge of a different system you will

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have someone acting as a flight director

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you'll have a Capcom you'll have a

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medical officer and then experts for all

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the systems and it is precisely like a

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mission control center now it's not as

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big it doesn't have as many different

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flight controllers in it as a real

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control center and of course it's less

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complicated the real control center is

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Matt

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massively complicated but we have a real

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mission running here and we're treating

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it as such with a real mission control

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now that Mission Control runs about 14

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to 15 hours a day a lot of the folks in

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there are doing that as a single shift

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whereas in the real Mission Control we

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try to hand over shifts every eight

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hours to keep people from getting too

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tired then we also have a lot of people

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here who are not working in Mission

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Control but working other things today

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we have two little submarine

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submersibles that are going to be doing

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marine science for the next four days

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and the next four days after that

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they're going to be working with us on

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the asteroid exploration simulation as

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if they were little tiny spacecraft we

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had to work alongside our suited

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astronauts outside but they're doing

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reef science so we've got a bunch of

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marine biologists with us we also have a

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bunch of folks who are making sure that

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the systems and the Mission Control are

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working properly and that's true of a

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real mission control too we have a big

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team that you never see on screen

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working in the background of that

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building to make sure the lights stay on

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and the bathrooms work and the coffee

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machine is properly stocked and make

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sure all the electronic communication

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inside that building words setting

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something like that up on the fly as we

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do here in the field is very complicated

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we have a lot of people to help with

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that and then we also have a dedicated

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team of folks who are paying very close

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attention to our aquanauts spacewalks

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they have designed and built all of the

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tools for that themselves and if

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anything breaks which almost always

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happens on an eda things don't go quite

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right and also in the saltwater

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environment things that normally rotate

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don't and other difficulties so we've

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got a whole team of people paying

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attention to those eda tools and making

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sure that everything that crew is going

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to use is going to work properly well

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it's going to be important lessons as we

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look to going further than we've ever

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gone before to an asteroid and on to

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Mars and Stan we want to thank you for

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joining us under you guys are busy down

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there we're going to be following along

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if you would like to follow along with

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the NASA Nemo mission there on Twitter

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at NASA underscore Nemo sustained thank

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you so much for joining us you guys

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enjoy your time down there in Florida