Keith’s note: NASA NEEMO 21 is underway at Aquarius Base. Check @NASA_NEMO and @ReefBase on Twitter for updates. On Wednesday NASA JSC microbiologists talked about sending new genome sequencing technology that is being deployed on ISS to NEEMO. Clearly NEEMO is part of NASA’s overall #JourneyToMars thing. Yet for some strange reason NASA JSC PAO is not issuing anything about the current NASA NEEMO mission. No media advisories, NASA NEEMO […]

Astronaut training resumes at undersea lab in the Florida Keys with 5-day mission, AP “Starting Tuesday, five astronauts will spend five days living and working at the Aquarius Reef Base. While they’re underwater, they’ll be trying out an exercise device that could be used on the International Space Station and spacewalking tools.” Keith’s note: NASA Astronauts living underwater – sound familiar? NASA’s NEEMO used to do this. Not any more. […]

Florida university to take over operations of undersea lab Aquarius, Star News “A lack of federal support and local funding has forced the University of North Carolina Wilmington to stop operations at Aquarius, the world’s only permanent undersea laboratory – a loss that will take away a key component of the school’s marine science program, a school official said. “Aquarius is unique. It’s the only asset like this in the […]

NASA’s Undersea Mission Submerges in the Atlantic “An international crew of aquanauts is settling into its home on the ocean floor, where the team will spend 12 days testing concepts for a potential asteroid mission. The expedition is the 16th excursion of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO).” Challenger Center to host Exciting Interactive Webcasts with NASA NEEMO

U.S. Budget Cuts Threaten to Sink Undersea Research Fleet, Science “Last week, researchers began to plead their case, asking lawmakers to reject an Obama Administration plan to eliminate the $4 million National Undersea Research Program (NURP), which is run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). … The program also funds investigators to work at NOAA’s Aquarius Reef Base, an underwater laboratory that sits in 18 meters of water […]

A Post-Mission Conversation With NASA NEEMO Aquanaut Steve Squyres “Cowing: Let’s go back to what we were talking about several weeks ago before you began your NEEMO mission – the idea that being there – and doing it as – opposed to intellectualizing things … Squyres: … yea, it is really different when you actually have to do it!”

NASA evacuates astronauts from deep-sea training “NASA evacuated a crew of astronauts Wednesday from an underwater lab off the coast of Florida where they were training for a trip to an asteroid, due to the approach of Hurricane Rina. “Crew decompressed overnight and will return to surface shortly. Hurricane Rina just a little too close for comfort,” the US space agency said in a message on the microblogging site Twitter. […]

Crowdsourcing Science with Zooniverse and NASA at the NEEMO-15 Underwater Asteroid Mission “Analyzing the vast amount of data that NASA brings back from its missions is an enormous task. In order to improve collaboration internally, as well as engage citizens in NASA’s mission, the Open Government team is experimenting with different ways to process mission data quickly. The NASA OpenGov team has enlisted the help of established NASA partners Zooniverse […]

A Pre-Mission Conversation With NASA NEEMO Aquanaut Steve Squyres “I had a chance to chat with NEEMO 15 crew member Steve Squyres today as he waits out some bad weather before his 13 day underwater mission begins. According to Steve its looking like Thursday before they can “splash down” and begin their mission.”

Keith’s note: NASA civil servant Nick Skytland is one of the Education and Public Outreach Officers for NEEMO-14. He is overtly using his Twitter account for the performance of his official duties – yet he still blocks specific taxpayers from following his postings. I have to wonder when NASA CIO Linda Cureton will finally put a social media policy in place at NASA that deals with such flagrant abuses of […]