NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Image above: See how NASA prepares astronauts for space in the Aquarius Underwater Research Facility. Credit: NOAA and UNC Wilmington

Dive into space! You can join a special voyage that is 60 feet below the ocean's surface! This is where NASA astronauts are training at the Aquarius underwater habitat.

NEEMO 6 Webcast
July 15, 2004 @ noon CDT
+ Submit your question

See the following location for details on participating:
http://education.jsc.nasa.gov/DLN/stream.htm

The program is part of NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO). The live webcast will allow you and other students around the world to see how NASA prepares astronauts for life in outer space by taking them to the extreme environment of inner space. The live webcast is scheduled for Thursday, July 15, 2004, from 12:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. CDT. The program will have live discussions with the crew. And you will be able to ask questions.

Native American Astronaut John Herrington will command the crew of this year's first NEEMO mission July 12-21.

Other members of the NEEMO 6 Crew are NASA Engineer Tara Ruttley and Astronauts Nicholas Patrick and Douglas Wheelock. The four of them will serve as the NASA members of a crew that will live in the Aquarius Underwater Research Facility for 10 days.

The crew will use the undersea habitat as practice for long-duration space habitation. They will live in a space that is about the same size as the habitation module of the International Space Station. They will conduct scientific research on the human body and coral reef environment off the coast of Florida. And they will build structures under the sea as if they were building the Space Station during a spacewalk.

Biographies

John Herrington NEEMO 6 Commander + View biography

Nicholas J.M. Patrick Astronaut/Aquanaut + View biography

Douglas H. Wheelock Astronaut/Aquanaut + View biography

Tara Ruttley Engineer/Aquanaut + View biography

The NEEMO missions are a cooperative project of NASA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Undersea Research Center (NURC) and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW). They use Aquarius, the only undersea research laboratory in the world, which is owned by NOAA and managed by UNCW. The 14-meter-long (45 feet) by 4-meter-diameter (13 feet) underwater home and laboratory operates 4.5 kilometers (3 miles) off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Additional Resources

The National Undersea Research Center Aquarius Web site
+ View site

Aquarius Construction Activity
+ View activity
+ Download viewer

Digital Learning Network Web site
+ View site

NASA Education
+ View site