NEEMO: When NASA Prepares for Space Conquest in the Depths of the Ocean – Abyss File 3

Off the coast of Florida, NASA conducts a unique experiment every year: sending a crew to the Aquarius underwater module to simulate the challenges of a space exploration mission. Cut off from the world in this underwater habitat, astronauts experience complete isolation and carry out numerous diving excursions during NEEMO missions to reproduce the conditions expected on future expeditions to the Moon or Mars.

Aquarius underwater laboratory: a unique training center

Since the early 2000s, NASA has organized 23 NEEMO missions. Each time, a new crew immerses for several days, operating at more than 20 meters deep, in the Aquarius laboratory managed by Florida International University (FIU), off the Keys. This module, connected to a floating platform for electricity supply and audio, video, and computer communications, maintains a pressure identical to the aquatic environment (3 bars) and remains permanently accessible via an airlock connected to the underwater world.

The experience lived by the crews is comparable to that of a space station: confinement in a small space, inability to return to the surface without a long desaturation, and management of major risks. Like Laurent Ballesta and his team during the Gombessa 5 expedition (see Plongez! no.22 and 25), the inhabitants of Aquarius live in nitrogen saturation, which requires extreme precautions.

Intensive training, close to the reality of space

In 2014, Hervé Stevenin, like Thomas Pesquet, participated in the NEEMO 19 mission and testifies: « We are trained to respond to critical emergencies similar to those of the International Space Station: depressurization (flooding), fire, atmospheric contamination… We must be able to evacuate at any time and wait for rescue underwater in a bell until a ship equipped with a recompression chamber arrives. The risks are real. We must be extremely rigorous in every action, follow procedures scrupulously. During a 4-hour dive far from the module, the slightest mistake can be fatal. One entrusts their life to their partners, and vice versa. This absolute trust forges the crew spirit, just like aboard a spacecraft. »

Each day is scheduled just like aboard the ISS: CAPCOMs ensure communication with the surface, scientific experiments are conducted in the module, and diving excursions (EVA for Extra Vehicular Activity) are scheduled daily according to a tight schedule.