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NASA Space Habitat Research Goes Undersea

Posted by samzenpus on from the over-and-under dept.

PSandusky writes "NASA is preparing to make use of Aquarius, the underwater laboratory off Key Largo, for an extended period of time to research the effects of isolation in habitats situated in extreme environments. Planned areas of research include extravehicular activity logistics and crew health and performance. According to NASA's factsheet (PDF), the mission will include some communication with schools and social media sites. "

2 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Life imitating art.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wasn't this an Asimov short story?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterclap

  2. Re:This is news??? by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And why go underwater? Facebook security [techcrunch.com] conventions should get you the requisite amount of isolation to practice for deep space travel!

    Simple, because it's actually a hostile environment if you're not careful, and because for any space-suit training, it's the closest thing to low gravity we can simulate.

    When you're trying to seriously evaluate how you would handle an extreme environment, you don't just run around playing make-believe.

    Air locks and the associated protocols are important both under water and in space.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.