NASA SPACE VETERAN LEADS UNDERSEA CREW
For the first time, an astronaut with months of experience in space will compare that time to life underwater. Peggy Whitson, an International Space Station veteran, is commanding a NASA crew spending two weeks living on the ocean floor.....
Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC
Melissa Motichek
Headquarters, Washington June 16, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1272)
Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)
Jana Goldman
National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration
(Phone: 301/713-2483)
RELEASE: 03-198
NASA SPACE VETERAN LEADS UNDERSEA CREW
For the first time, an astronaut with months of
experience in space will compare that time to life
underwater. Peggy Whitson, an International Space Station
veteran, is commanding a NASA crew spending two weeks living
on the ocean floor.
Whitson, who called the Space Station home for six months
last year, is joined by astronauts Clay Anderson and Garret
Reisman and scientist Emma Hwang for a NASA Extreme
Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission June 16-29.
The quartet will serve as the NASA members of a crew living
in the Aquarius Underwater Research Facility off the coast of
Key Largo, Fla. in the Florida Keys National Marine
Sanctuary.
"NEEMO 5, our next-generation mission, goes beyond the bounds
of space analog experience and will attempt to answer several
significant scientific questions about long duration
isolation in extreme environments," said Bill Todd, NEEMO
project manager at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston.
"We have ratcheted up the isolation factor, complexity and
science objectives to a level that closely parallels a space
mission experience. And the science we are performing may
very well help answer several critical path questions on our
road map for journeying to Mars and beyond," Todd said.
NEEMO missions are a cooperative project of NASA, the
National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
the National Undersea Research Center, and the University of
North Carolina at Wilmington (UNC-W).
Aquarius, the only undersea research laboratory in the world,
owned by NOAA and managed by UNC-W, is similar in size to the
Space Station's living quarters, the Zvezda Service Module.
The crew will use the undersea habitat as practice for long-
duration space habitation and to build undersea structures
simulating Space Station assembly activities. They will also
conduct scientific research on the human body and coral reef
environments. The 45-foot long by 13-foot diameter underwater
laboratory operates three miles off Key Largo. It sits on the
ocean floor, about 62 feet beneath the surface, near deep
coral reefs.
A surface life support buoy provides Aquarius with power,
air, and communications, allowing scientists to live and work
in reasonably comfortable quarters, and a shore-based
"mission control" in Florida and a control room at JSC
monitor crew activities.
The aquanauts plan to discuss their mission with the crew of
the International Space Station, Commander Yuri Malenchenko
and NASA Station Science Officer Ed Lu, during a ship-to-ship
linkup tentatively planned for 12:25 p.m. EDT on June 25.
An opportunity for media to interview the crew of NEEMO 5 is
available from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. EDT, June 25. A second
opportunity is available June 26 from 3 to 4 p.m. EDT. Media
interested in conducting audio or video interviews with the
crew should contact the JSC Newsroom at: 281/483-5111 no
later than noon EDT, Tuesday, June 24.
The NEEMO 5 crew will also participate in six educational
"point-to-point" videoconferences and a Web chat during the
mission. Students in Titonka, Iowa; Jersey City, N.J.; Omaha,
Neb.; Nashville, Tenn.; Charlotte, N.C.; Honolulu; Milford,
Mass.; Austin, Texas; and Seattle will participate in various
educational events. The Web chat, a cooperative effort of
JSC's Distance Learning Outpost and NASA's Ames Research
Center Quest project, is at 2:30 p.m. EDT, June 19.
Information about the Web chat is available on the Internet,
at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/projects/space/aquarius/2003/june.h
tml
For information about NASA on the Internet, visit:
For information about the NEEMO project on the Internet,
visit:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/support/training/neemo/ne
emo5.html
For information about Aquarius on the Internet, visit: