News
Astronauts go diving to train for future asteroid missions
Astronauts dive into the Final Frontier
Astronauts don’t usually have to contend with marine life (or any other kind of life, for that matter – except for other astronauts, of course) in the middle of a spacewalk, but a NASA team learned how to deal with such distractions during recent undersea mission that simulated asteroid exploration.
The crew of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 19 (NEEMO 19) lived in the Aquarius lab, which is located 62 feet (19 meters) beneath the waves off the coast of Key Largo, Florida and is where ocean explorer Fabien Cousteau recently completed Mission 31. The astronauts’ week-long mission concluded on Sunday 14th September.NEEMO 19 commander Randy Bresnik, a veteran of the STS-129 space shuttle mission in 2009, observed that a fish swimming by is actually not all that different from the distractions that may present themselves during a real spacewalk (also known as an extravehicular activity, or EVA).
“It catches the eye. You certainly admire the beauty of it, but you don’t want to get too distracted,” Bresnik said from the Aquarius lab. “It isn’t too different than regular EVAs, where you have the world going by at six miles a second in the field of view.”
As with predecessor mission NEEMO 18, which ran in July, the astronauts tested out techniques that could be used to manage communications delays on an asteroid mission. There would be a 10-minute delay if you were exploring a space rock about halfway between the Earth and Mars, Bresnik said.
NASA is trying out a procedure in which astronauts would complete a circuit of the sites they need to visit on the asteroid while sending the information back to Earth. By the time they return to the first site, communications would have had a chance to travel to and from mission control, letting the astronauts act on any instructions from the ground.
Many aspects of life inside Aquarius are similar to being aboard the space shuttle or the International Space Station, Bresnik said. For instance, space is limited — the living area of Aquarius is about the same as the inside of a school bus — and the days are long with much to be done.
Bringing the astronauts into an isolated environment has advantages over a lab-based simulation because there are certain challenges you can’t replicate using computers, Bresnik added.
“It’s a unique environment, a distracting environment, a dangerous environment that really helps make the simulation and adds stress and challenge to it,” he said.
The success of the NEEMO 19 mission, he added, is due not only to the crew, but also to the extensive network of supporters such as safety divers, the managers of the Aquarius reef base and Florida International University, which oversees the Aquarius site.
Other members of the NEEMO 19 crew included astronauts Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency), Andreas Mogensen (European Space Agency) and Herve Stevenin, ESA’s head of extravehicular activity at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany.
Source: news.yahoo.com
For a week at the end of February I was invited to sample the diving with Orca Dive Club based at the Breakers Diving and Surfing Lodge by courtesy of SOMABAY.
Somabay covers an entire peninsula and is home to several resorts as well as residential compounds. Somabay caters for scuba diving as well as many other sports, including windsurfing, golf, sailing, go-carting, horse riding and many other activities.
All the activities are of a world-class standard and any or all of these can be booked directly from The Breakers.
I took Easyjet from Bristol (UK) to Hurghada. Easyjet are not by any means my favourite airline but the flight was cheap and direct (except for the surprise extra £48 I was charged at the gate for my carry-on bag).
I was met at Hurghada airport by a driver and car and taken to the Breakers 28 miles (45Kilomaters) south along the coast. Once at the hotel I was too late for an evening meal and so a basic meal was delivered to my room. That and a beer from the fridge and I was fast asleep.
Early the next morning after breakfast I arrived for my rep meeting at the Orca Dive Center for 8.00am. I was immediately made to feel welcome, and after brief introductions I got some dive gear from the store, had a chat with my dive guide Mohamed and got ready to try the house reef situated at the end of a very long wooded pier where all diving gear and divers are taken out by buggies.
Once at the end of the pier, a helping hand from staff makes sure your gear is set and then it’s a short walk to the very end where you can either climb down a ladder of simply jump in the water next to the reef. The house reef extends both north and south giving a very easy and safe dive with plenty to see. At this time of the year the water temperature was a constant 22 degrees Centigrade and there was little or no current, so there were no issues in swimming back to the pier.
Quite a few divers were in dry or semi-dry suits, but being from the UK and used to the cold I found a 3mm wetsuit with a 3mm neoprene vest quite comfortable. Even after 50 years of diving I still find that first dive of a trip slightly nerving until I am actually underwater and then all becomes relaxed and I ease into auto diving mode. There was plenty to see with many of the Red Sea favourites along the way.
After the dive and a buggy ride back to the hotel for a very good buffet lunch I was back in the water, once again on the house reef for an afternoon dive.
Check in for part 2 tomorrow when Jeff gets on a day boat and dives a few of the off-shore reefs.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
In an interview recorded exclusively for Scubaverse.com, Jeff Goodman interviews Jeremy Higson from Sea to Sky about the itineraries the tour operator offers in Oman.
For more information about diving in Oman, contact Sea to Sky now:
Email: hello@mysetaosky.co.uk
WhatsApp: + 39 379 236 7138
Website: www.myseatosky.co.uk
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