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However, the 15th NEEMO mission ended earlier than planned, due to the predicted path of Hurricane Rina. The NOAA, which operates the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory and the agency determined Rina posed a risk to the safety of the mission.<\/p>\n
According to NASA, the six aquanauts of the NEEMO crew left the facility, where they lived for five days, and returned to the surface of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in Key Largo on Wednesday. NASA only released the information some time later.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/D34.jpg\" "\\"D3\\"")
The NEEMO 15 mission was led by NASA astronaut and former International Space Station (ISS) crew member Shannon Walker. The crew included Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques from the 2009 NASA astronaut class.<\/p>\nSteven Squyres of Cornell University was joined by James Talacek and Nate Bender of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington \u2013 who are both professional aquanauts, while NASA astronauts Stan Love, Richard Arnold and Mike Gernhardt, all veteran spacewalkers, participated in the NEEMO mission from the DeepWorker submersible, which they piloted.<\/p>\n
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<\/path>SpaceX launch tickets <\/path>NASA mission patches <\/path>\n (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n
Starting on October 20, the NEEMO crew conducted six underwater spacewalks and one day of scientific research inside the Aquarius habitat.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/A361.jpg\" "\\"A36\\"")
They also completed four days of scientific asteroid exploration analog operations using the deep worker submersibles that stood in for the Multi Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV).<\/p>\nThis year\u2019s mission was the first NEEMO to focus on operational concepts that would be used in human exploration of an asteroid \u2013 currently part of NASA\u2019s exploration plan, likely to take place in the mid-2020s.<\/p>\n
Mission scenarios included using a grid of \u201cexcursion lines\u201d, accompanied by the submersibles acting as MMSEV (Multi Mission Space Exploration Vehicle).<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the length, we accomplished a significant amount of research,\u201d said NEEMO Project Manager Bill Todd. \u201cWe\u2019re already learning lessons from working in this environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/D24.jpg\" "\\"D2\\"")
NEEMO\u2019s mission included a remote Mission Control Centers (MCC) \u2013 established both in Key Largo and building 30 room 211 at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) \u2013 which exercised time delay communication protocols, along with advanced planning and timeline development tools.<\/p>\nThis involvement, led by NASA\u2019s Mission Operations Directorate (MOD), mirrored their exploration training used for NASA\u2019s Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS) and the international Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) simulations \u2013 which also have NEO and Mars mission focus.<\/p>\n
The next mission \u2013 NEEMO 16 \u2013 is tentatively set for the summer of 2012, which will build on the content for an exploration mission to a Near Earth Object (NEO).<\/p>\n
Also see NASASpaceflight.com\u2019s Flexible Path Review:
\nPart 1: Battle of the Heavy Lift Launchers \u2013 Monster 200mt vehicle noted
\nPart 2: Manned mission to construct huge GEO and deep space telescopes proposed
\nPart 3: NASA Flexible Path Evaluation of 2025 human mission to visit an asteriod
\nPart 4: Taking Aim on Phobos \u2013 NASA outline Flexible Path precursor to Man on Mars<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/A164.jpg\" "\\"A164\\"")
As previously noted in other pre-NEEMO coverage by this site, no actual NEO destination has been chosen at this time, as much as a roadmap for exploration is currently being worked on by NASA.<\/p>\nThe most likely candidates can be found via NASA\u2019s Flexible Path presentation, which cited a mission to Near Earth Object 1999AO10, requiring a launch date of January 2, 2026. NASA managers continue to note that a NEO mission would likely occur in the middle of the next decade, making this target a viable example.<\/p>\n
This deep space mission would last 155 days, around half of the mission length for the other candidate mentioned \u2013 304 days \u2013 for NEO 2001 GP2.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/A46A.jpg\" "\\"A46A\\"")
With a robotic precursor mission launched four years in advance, the 1999AO10 mission is portrayed as requiring two Space Launch System vehicles being readied to launch.<\/p>\nThe first HLV launch \u2013 per the Flexible Path approach \u2013 would place the Earth Departure Stage (EDS) and an \u201cinflatable design Habitat\u201d \u2013 otherwise known as the Deep Space Hab (DSH) into orbit first.<\/p>\n
The higher propellant load Orion\/SM (Service Module) \u2013 and likely the MMSEV \u2013 would then placed in LEO on the second launch. This is a different sequence to that proposed in other presentations, showing how such mission sequences remain undefined at this time.<\/p>\n
(Images: L2 Content, NASA, NEEMO)<\/p>\n
(As the shuttle fleet retire, NSF and L2 are providing full transition level coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS\/CRS\/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles.)<\/p>\n
(Click here to join L2: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/ )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NASA 13 day Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission has ended earlier than expected, due to a potential hurricane threat to the Key Largo, Florida \u2013 where the Aquarius underwater habitat is located. The mission was still highly successful, with six underwater EVAs conducted, providing valuable lessons for a potential crewed mission to an asteroid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8958,7873,640],"class_list":["post-40293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-neemo","tag-neo","tag-orion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}