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HAB.F | Aquanauts of the Hab

NASA’s Favorite Training Grounds

NASA has been sending astronauts to the Aquarius for pre-mission training for years through the NEEMO mission program. Every NEEMO mission includes 4 or 5 ‘aquanauts’ who get a first hand look at life in an environment from which there is no easy escape in an emergency. Want to meet some of the aquanauts and learn more about their missions, see how many you recognize? Have a look below!  (Get it?)

 

NEEMO 1: October 21 - 27, 2001

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Bill Todd, Commander
  • Michael L. Gernhardt
  • Michael López-Alegría
  • Dafydd Williams, CSA

NURC Support Crew:

  • Mark Hulsbeck
  • Ryan Snow

On the first day of the mission, Williams wrote in his journal: “In contrast to the eight and a half minute flight to space where 7 million pounds of thrust were propelling us to low earth orbit, the leisurely swim to the habitat seemed quite surreal … We left the habitat at 10:04 – four aquanauts embarking on their first real dive from an underwater habitat.”

Image: The first NEEMO crew, L-R:
in front, Mike López-Alegría and Bill Todd,
in back, Mike Gernhardt and Dave Williams
Credit: NASA

NEEMO 2: May 13 - 20, 2002

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Michael Fincke, Commander
  • Daniel M. Tani
  • Sunita Williams – The first woman on Aquarius; Williams formerly held the records for total spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes)
  • Marc Reagan

NURC Support Crew:

  • Thor Dunmire
  • Ryan Snow

 

Image:  Sunita Williams
Credit: NASA

NEEMO 3: July 15 - 21, 2002

NASA Aquanaut Crew

  • Jeffrey Williams, Commander
  • Gregory Chamitoff
  • John D. Olivas
  • Jonathan Dory

NURC Support Crew:

  • Byron Croker
  • Michael Smith

One of the experiments conducted during NEEMO 3 was the construction of an underwater structure. The experiment would provide an analog of space station assembly during extravehicular activities, or EVAs.

Image:  Underwater construction
Credit: NASA

NEEMO 4: September 23 - 27, 2002

NASA Aquanaut Crew

  • Scott Kelly, Commander
  • Paul Hill
  • Rex Walheim
  • Jessica Meir

NURC Support Crew:

  • James Talacek
  • Ryan Snow

Hurricane Isadore and Tropical Storm Lili threatened the NEEMO 4 expedition, but the crew was ultimately able to remain for the full five days. 

Image:  Tropical Storm Lili

NEEMO 5: June 16 - 29, 2003

 NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Peggy Whitson, Commander
  • Clayton Anderson
  • Garrett Reisman
  • Emma Hwang

NURC Support Crew:

  • James Talacek
  • Ryan Snow

Whitson was the first Space Station Expedition crewmember to live aboard Aquarius, so she was able to offer a unique perspective. She wrote in her journal: “I have spent a lot of time in the last [six] months wishing that I were back living on the International Space Station … This longing to be in space is probably why this opportunity to have a mission under the sea intrigued me.”

Image:  NEEMO 5’s crew
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 6: July 12 - 21, 2004

NASA Aquanaut Crew

  • John Herrington, Commander – Commander Herrington was born into the Native American Chickasaw Nation, and carried its flag on his thirteen-day trip to space in 2002.
  • Nicholas Patrick
  • Douglas H. Wheelock
  • Tara Ruttley

NURC Support Crew:

  • Craig B. Cooper
  • Joseph March

• Marc Reagan, Mission Director

Image:  Emblem of the Native American Chickasaw Nation

 

NEEMO 7: October 11 - 21, 2004

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Robert Thirsk, Commander
  • Catherine Coleman
  • Michael R. Barratt
  • Craig McKinley

NURC Support Crew:

  • James Talacek
  • Billy Cooksey

• Bill Todd, Mission Director

The primary research focus of this mission was to evaluate telementoring and telerobotic surgery technologies as potential means to deliver medical care to astronauts during spaceflight. 

 

Image:  Aquanaut Dr. Craig McKinley practices a suturing technique in Aquarius
Credit NASA

 

NEEMO 8: April 20 - 22, 2005

NASA Aquanaut Crew

  • Michael L. Gernhardt, Commander – His professional honors include 4 NASA Space Flight Medals; 2 Exceptional Service Medals; 1 Exceptional Achievement Medal and 1 Distinguished Service Medal.
  • John D. Olivas
  • Scott Kelly
  • Monika Schultz

NURC Support Crew:

  • Craig B. Cooper
  • Joseph March

• Bill Todd, Mission Director

 

Image:  Michael Gernhardt, attached to the Shuttle Endeavour’s robot arm during a spacewalk
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 9: April 3 - 20, 2006

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Dafydd Williams, Commander
  • Nicole P. Stott
  • Ronald J. Garan, Jr.
  • Timothy J. Broderick, M.D.

NURC Support Crew:

  • James F. Buckley
  • Ross Hein

• Marc Reagan, Mission Director

During the mission, remote health care procedures were tested on a patient simulator. New long-distance medical care procedures, such as telemonitoring and telerobotic surgery, may help maintain the health of spacefarers. The techniques simulated in Aquarius can be used in remote settings on Earth, and may one day be used to respond to emergencies on the International Space Station, the moon or Mars

Image:  The NEEMO 9 crew prepares for a night dive
Credit: NASA

NEEMO 10: July 22 - 28, 2006

NASA Aquanaut Crew

  • Koichi Wakata, Commander – a veteran of four NASA Space Shuttle missions, a Russian Soyuz mission, and a long-duration stay on the International Space Station; during a nearly two-decade career in spaceflight, he has logged more than eleven months in space; the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station. 
  • Andrew Feustel
  • Karen L. Nyberg
  • Karen Kohanowich

NURC Support Crew:

  • Mark Hulsbeck
  • Dominic Landucci

• Marc Reagan, Mission Director

Image:  Koichi Wakata
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 11: September 16 - 22, 2006

NASA Aquanaut Crew:  

  • Sandra Magnus, Commander – “It was really interesting to see how just the weight distribution for this simulated space suit could dramatically change how difficult or easy it was to do different activities.”
  • Timothy Kopra
  • Robert L. Behnken
  • Timothy Creamer

NURC Support Crew:

  • Larry Ward
  • Roger Garcia

• Marc Reagan, Mission Director

Image:  NEEMO crewmember during a ’waterwalk’
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 12: May 7 - 18, 2007

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Commander
  • José M. Hernández
  • Josef Schmid, M.D.
  • Timothy J. Broderick, M.D.

NURC Support Crew:

  • Dominic Landucci
  • James Talacek

• Marc Reagan, Mission Director

“A highlight of our mission today was a “ship to ship” call from the Aquarius Habitat up to the International Space Station! The ISS had just passed over the Florida Keys, and with the great help of our Public Affairs Office and Mission Control back at the Johnson Space Center, we were able to talk directly with the ISS crew. Suni Williams, a former Aquarius crew member herself, has been living on the ISS for the past six months. We had a great conversation with her, sharing her memories of living here and on the similarities on living there on the ISS.”

Image:  NOAA Seafloor Marker Commemorates 200 Years Of ‘Inner Space’ Exploration
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 13: August 6 - 15, 2007

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Nicholas Patrick, Commander – “Before coming down here, most of us didn’t know the difference between coral and a sponge. I used to think of fish as wheat, something you harvest. I can’t think the word ‘supply’ and ‘fish’ in the same sentence now.” 
  • Richard R. Arnold
  • Satoshi Furukawa
  • Christopher E. Gerty

NURC Support Crew:

  • James F. Buckley
  • Dewey Smith

• Marc Reagan, Mission Director

Image:  Commander Patrick stands on his hands to simulate the one-sixth gravity on the lunar surface
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 14: May 10 - 23, 2010

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Chris Hadfield, Commander – The first Canadian to walk in space; author of the bestseller, “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth;” recorded a version of “Space Oddity” on the ISS. 
  • Thomas H. Marshburn
  • Andrew Abercromby
  • Steve Chappell

Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew:

  • James Talacek
  • Nate Bender
  • Eli Quinn
  • Bill Todd, Mission Director

 

Image:  Playing “Space Oddity” on the ISS
Credit: Rare Earth

 

NEEMO 15: October 20 - 26, 2011

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Shannon Walker, Commander
  • Takuya Onishi
  • David Saint-Jacques
  • Steve Squyres – Squyres has written a book called Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet (published August 2005), and appeared on the June 7, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report to discuss it, Mars, and MER. The Disney IMAX documentary film Roving Mars was made from the book.

Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew:

  • James Talacek
  • Nate Bender

DeepWorker 2000 Submersible Crew:

  • Stanley G. Love
  • Richard R. Arnold
  • Michael L. Gernhardt

 

Image:  NEEMO 15 crew members from right to left:
Shannon Walker, Steve Squyres, David Saint-Jacques, Takuya Onishi
Credit: NASA 

NEEMO 16: June 11 - 22, 2012

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Commander –  Metcalf-Lindenburger taught Earth Science and Astronomy at Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver, Washington for five years, and coached high school cross-country running for two years. 
  • Kimiya Yui
  • Timothy Peake
  • Steve Squyres

Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew:

  • Steve Chappell
  • James Talacek
  • Justin Brown

DeepWorker 2000 Submersible Crew:

  • Stanley G. Love
  • Steve Giddings
  • Serena M. Auñón
  • Bill Todd
  • Michael L. Gernhardt
  • Andrew Abercromby

Image:  Tim Peake, Steven Squyres, James Talacek (inside),
Justin Brown (in the black suit), Kimiya Yui, and Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger
Credit: NASA

 

SEATEST II: Sept 9 - 13, 2013 Space Environment Analog for Testing EVA Systems and Training (NEEMO 17 designation skipped)

Aquanaut Crew: 

  • Joseph M. Acaba, Commander – Acaba spent two years in the United States Peace Corps and trained over 300 teachers in the Dominican Republic in modern teaching methodologies.
  • Kate Rubins
  • Andreas Mogensen
  • Soichi Noguchi
  • Thomas Pesquet

Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew: 

  • Mark Hulsbeck
  • Otto Rutten

Image:  On board the ISS
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 18: July 21 - 29, 2014

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Akihiko Hoshide, Commander – While on the ISS in 2012, Hoshide successfully recorded the first voice acting performance in space for a cameo appearance in the 31st episode of the anime television series, Space Brothers, which aired on November 4, 2012.
  • Jeanette J. Epps
  • Mark T. Vande Hei
  • Thomas Pesquet

Professional Habitat Technician, Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew

  • Hank Stark (FIU)

Image:  Mission Specialist Akihiko Hoshide works
in the newly installed Kibo Japanese Pressurized Module
Photo credit: NASA/JSC

 

NEEMO 19: September 7 - 13, 2014

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Randolph Bresnik, Commander
  • Andreas Mogensen, Flight Engineer 1
  • Jeremy Hansen, Flight Engineer 2
  • Hervé Stevenin, Flight Engineer 3 – Stevenin has received extensive astronaut training and is the only “non-astronaut” European citizen with spacewalk training experience inside both NASA’s Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and Russian Orlan space suit. 

Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew:

  • Mark Hulsbeck
  • Ryan LaPete
  • Eli Quinn c.e.o

 

Image:  The NEEMO 19 crew: Left to right:
Hansen, Stevenin, Mogensen, Bresnik; inside habitat: Hulsbeck, LaPete
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 20: July 20 - August 2, 2015

NASA NEEMO 20 Aquanaut Crew

  • Luca Parmitano, ESA, Commander
  • David Coan, NASA EVA Management Office Engineer
  • Norishige Kanai, JAXA

Professional Habitat Technicians, Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew

  • Mark Hulsbeck (FIU)
  • Sean Moore (FIU)

The mission objective was to simulate the time-delays associated with sending and receiving commands between controllers on Earth and astronauts on Mars. Additional EVAs will simulate working on the surface of an asteroid, and the use of DeepWorker submersible as an underwater standin for the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle.-Serena M. Auñón, NASA

 

Image:  Luca Parmitano, Serena Aunon, David Coan, Norishige Kanai
Inside the Aquarius station: Mark Hulsbeck & Sean Moore
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 21: July 21 - August 5, 2016

NASA Aquanaut Crew:

  • Reid Wiseman, NASA, Commander 1.
  • Megan McArthur, NASA, Commander 2
  • Marc O’Griofa – Twitter handle:  DiveDoc
  • Matthias Maurer, ESA
  • Noel Du Toit
  • Dawn Kernagis

Professional Habitat Technicians, Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew

  • Hank Stark (FIU)
  • Sean Moore (FIU)

The NEEMO 21 mission was scheduled to begin July 18, 2016 and conclude August 3, 2016; however, the mission start was shifted to July 21, 2016 as a result of unfavorable weather conditions

 

Image:  “Executing missions from #innerspace to #outerspace”
Credit: NASA

 

NEEMO 22: June 18 - 27, 2017

NASA Aquanaut Crew:  

  • Kjell Lindgren, NASA, Commander
  • Pedro Duque, ESA
  • Trevor Graff, NASA/Jacobs
  • Dominic D’Agostino, USF

Professional Habitat Technicians, Aquarius Reef Base Support Crew

  • Mark Hulsbeck (FIU)
  • Sean Moore (FIU)

NEEMO 22 focused on both exploration spacewalks and objectives related to the International Space Station and deep space missions. 

 

Image:  NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren pulling Pedro Duque
on a stretcher in a simulated lunar rescue
Credit: NASA

 

Curriculum Reference Links



Young Scientist Spotlight:
HANNAH HERBST

10 Fun Facts: The Hab

1. Aquarius is the the world’s only permanent undersea research station.

2. Most missions last about two or three weeks.

3. Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, beat his grandfather’s record month-long underwater expedition by spending 31 days on the Aquarius Reef Base in 2014.

4. The lab is used by NASA, the US Navy, and researchers and educators from around the globe for training and research.

5. The internet connection is better in the Hab than at many places above the water.

6. You have to swim underneath the facility in order to enter it.

7. Crew members are called aquanauts (NOT aquaNUTS!)

8. In 1994, a crew of scientists and divers had to evacuate Aquarius and climb up a rescue line to the surface in 15-foot seas after one of the habitat’s generators caught fire.

9. Aquarius was featured in the comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon in 2012.

10. The Hab was originally built in Texas.

10 Fun Facts: Coral

1. Reefs usually grow up on the east shore of land masses.

2. Parts of a coral reef can be harvested to make medications to treat cancers and other illnesses.

3. A coral reef isn’t a single organism; it’s actually a community of life that lives and thrives in one location.

4. Only about one percent of the world’s oceans contain coral reefs. That’s about the size of France.

5. Coral reefs are the largest biological structures on earth.

6. Corals are related to jellyfish and anemones.

7. There are over 2,500 species of corals. About 1,000 are the hard corals that build coral reefs.

8. Reefs grow where there are stronger wave patterns and currents to deliver food and nutrients.

9. The Great Barrier Reef is 500,000 years old.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10 Fun Facts: Invasive Species

1. To be considered invasive, a species must adapt to a new area easily. It must reproduce quickly. It must harm property, the economy, or the native plants and animals of the region.

2. Some invasive species are introduced accidentally, but others are brought deliberately.

3. Ship ballast water transports between 3,000 and 7,000 foreign species daily around the globe.

4. The total loss to the world economy as a result of invasive non-native species has been estimated at 5% of annual production

5. Invasive species have contributed to 40% of the animal extinctions that have occurred in the last 400 years.

6. Rodents are some of the worst invasive species.

7. There are an estimated 50,000 wild ring-necked parakeets in parks across London and southeast England.

8. Black and Norway rats annually consume stored grains and destroy other property valued over $19 billion.

9. Northern Pacific seastars reproduce very quickly. In one area where they were introduced, their population reached an estimated 12 million seastars in just two years.

10. Starlings were introduced to New York in the late 1800s, as part of an attempt to bring animals that were mentioned in Shakespeare‘s work to America.

Alert: Cuteness Overload!

Cutest animal in the ocean? Keep your Sea Otter. Forget the Dumbo Octopus. Axolotl? Close, but no cigar.

The winner of the Cutest Sea Animal prize is the Leaf Sheep Slug.

Yes, a slug. This tiny (5mm) animal, found near the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan, looks like a cartoon sheep covered in bright green leaves with pinkish purple tips.

Bonus: it’s one of the only animals that can perform photosynthesis, thanks to all the algae it eats.

Beat that.
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