Hands-free in space and under water
ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is looking forward to flying to the International Space Station next year but until yesterday he was underwater trying out a handy new device he will use in space.
15 JUL. 2014
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NEEMO – NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations – trains astronauts for life in space. Living and working in an underwater base is similar to being on a space station. This year, NASA has two NEEMO missions planned with three ESA astronauts and a trainer taking part.
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Underwater base
NEEMO’s underwater habitat off Florida acts as makeshift a space base for astronauts to make regular ‘waterwalks’ in full scuba gear. Both underwater missions plan sorties for the astronauts to simulate spacewalks. Different gravity levels will test tools that could be used when humans land on the Moon, Mars or even asteroids.
The waterwalks will also test ways of communicating between mission control and the astronauts during the excursions.
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NEEMO 18 crew
NEEMO 18
The 18th underwater mission saw ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet take part in a nine-day mission, starting his underwater session on 21 July under the command of Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, along with NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps and Mark Vande Hei. ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli is also onsite for crew communications, functioning as capsule communicator for 'ground control'. Training started on 14 July.
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ESA astronaut trainer Hervé Stevenin at NEEMO base
NEEMO 19
The 19th mission starts its seven-day underwater adventure on 8 September. ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is joined by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and ESA astronaut trainer and spacewalk instructor Hervé Stevenin under the leadership of NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik.
This mission focuses on wearable computers and remotely monitoring the crew, and will test an ESA voice-command ‘mobiPV’ prototype using smartphones, tablets and screen glasses. This approach will be used on Andreas’ space mission next year.
Follow the mission and find out more through the links to the right.
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Seatest underwater adventure
ESA astronauts Andreas Mogensen and Thomas Pesquet returned from Florida last week after taking part in Seatest – NASA’s underwater testbed for working in space.
Teaching astronauts underground for living in space
This week sees the start of ESA’s next underground training course for astronauts. Six new and experienced astronauts from all over the world will work together to overcome the difficulties of working in a new environment performing a full scientific programme with limited supplies – similar to working on the International Space Station.
Underwater astronaut on the Moon
ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy and ESA astronaut instructor Hervé Stevenin slipped into the roles of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin last week for an underwater simulation of the historic mission to the Moon.
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Related links
Software Systems
Software is the term given to coded sets of instructions that tell the system what to do in a given situation. Thus, the software represents the “intelligence” of a certain system. As the sophistication and on-board intelligence of spacecraft has increased, e.g. to become more autonomous from ground, so too has the size and complexity of their associated software programs, stretching to hundreds of thousands of lines of code (and up to one million lines of code for the Jules Verne ATV).
NASA Neemo
Aquarius base reef
Aquarius base reef
@NASA_NEEMO
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