NASA Aquanauts 16-Days Underwater Training In Preparation For Deep Space Missions And Journey To Mars

First Posted: Jul 25, 2016 05:32 AM EDT

The international crew of aquanauts, the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 21 is on underwater training since July 21, 2016. They dived down to the undersea Aquarius Reef Base, which is situated below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Aquanauts splash down to train on @NASA_NEEMO for 16-day simulated space research mission: https://t.co/wL3ytm42Iz pic.twitter.com/hZ8fsvvpa1

— NASA (@NASA) July 24, 2016

It is a 16-day mission to train for future deep space missions and the journey to Mars. The aquanauts will assess tools and mission operation techniques that are needed in space missions. Their objectives involve a medical telemetry device, testing a DNA sequencer and HoloLens operational performance for human spaceflight cargo transfer that could be operated inside the habitat, according to NASA.

NEEMO Project Lead Bill Todd said that NEEMO 21 astronauts and crew will pioneer complex tasks on the seafloor utilizing the most advanced underwater navigation and science tools which are methodically choreographed to represent a Mars exploration traverse.

In their simulated spacewalks, the crew will gather samples for marine biology and geology studies participate in a coral restoration and test software for managing operations. They will also test communications delay similar to those that would be encountered on a mission to Mars, according to Economic Times.

Todd explained that the equipment can fail, communication can be stimulating and tasks can take longer than expected. He further explained that the other tasks just go and planned and all cases are equally beneficial. He concluded that this is how they learn and they are able to assemble all of this together so that someday they are prepared for the unexpected when they are living on and traversing the Martian surface.

The NEEMO 21 aquanauts on training are Matthias Maurer (ESA), Marc O Griofa (Teloregen/VEGA/AirDocs), NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, Noel Du Toit (Naval Postgraduate School) and Dawn Kernagis (Institute for Human & Machine Cognition).