WEBVTT - Finding NEEMO 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.080 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:13.600 Forward Thinking. Pay there and WelCom to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:15.800 podcast that looks at the future and says the seed 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.400 is always greener and somebody else's lake. I'm Jonathan Strickland 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.000 and I'm Joe McCormick, and our other host, Lauren voc 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.439 obamb is not with us today, but she will be 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.640 joining us again next week. Hopefully my brain will also 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.640 be joining us next week. Where is it right now, 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.040 I'll tell you my brain is. It's under the sea, buddy. 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.080 It's under the sea down, or it's wetter, or at 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.800 least I've heard it's better. I've actually never been under 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.559 the sea. What Well, I've swam in the sea. I 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:43.760 guess I've like dunked my head on. Okay, I was 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:46.640 about to say, like, how have you managed to do that? No, 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.840 I mean, I've never been to the bottom of the ocean. Well, 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.919 I mean depends on what part of the ocean you're 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.040 talking about. Two, right, because when you're waiting in your 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:59.160 feet are on the sand, right, Okay, but not you 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.400 don't mean to any significance. Actually, I am an aqua knot. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:05.360 I went to the beach one time. We're going to 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.800 talk about aqua nuts today, and aqua nuts are uh there. 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:15.320 There are people working with NASA to develop technologies and 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:22.680 processes and various strategies for dealing with deep space situations 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.880 and and tech and tools, but we have to be 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.080 able to do it here on Earth because you know, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.480 if you want to test something to make sure that 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.720 it can withstand the rigors of space, or that it 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.240 needs to uh, that needs to be useful within a 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.480 space environment, it's pretty tricky to do here on Earth. Yeah, 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:42.440 that's the thing We've actually talked about a bunch of 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.560 times before in various ways. It turns out to be 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:53.160 very difficult to simulate space on Earth cheaply and safely. Yeah, 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.000 you've got you know, we've got lots of different environments 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.840 that various uh the NASA uses in various emulations of 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.880 space environments. Things that Mars colonists pretending to be Mars 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.160 colonists out in the middle of the desert somewhere right 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.680 or Antarctica or something like that. But still they've got 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.840 Earth gravity, they've got air. Yeah. Yeah, if they were 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.520 to take their helmet off, they would not suddenly, you know, 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:19.960 turn into Ronnie Cox total recall. They would they would 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:25.280 not do that. So there's there's also another way of 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.120 simulating a space environment that does bring into account some 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:32.440 of those issues that you would encounter actually out in space, 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:38.200 and that would be doing this underwater. Underwater has several 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.519 of the aspects of space. For one, we obviously need 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.560 equipment so that we can continue to breathe while we're there. 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.239 And we can't just remove a helmet and be perfectly fine, right, 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:50.840 so we have to we have to sort of like 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.720 practice dawning the e v A suit and uh, and 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.160 dealing with that. It has unusual pressure conditions, though I'd 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.840 say actually going in the opposite direct from what we'd 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.560 be dealing with in most of our environments would be 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:05.280 going into in space. So like if you go to 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.040 the Moon or space walk or the surface of Mars, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.960 you're going to be dealing with an unusually low pressure environment. Uh. 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.399 Dealing with the bottom of the ocean is an unusually 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:19.160 high pressure environment, but still you're dealing with different pressure conditions. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.400 And also you have buoyancy, yeah, yeah, and buoyancy can 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:28.840 help simulate a low gravity environment. So whether you're you know, 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.799 you can add some weight to your your suit which 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.760 will allow you to simulate different low gravity environments. Infect 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.560 NASA does this all the time, and they do this 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:43.200 through a program called NEMO in E E M O. 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:45.280 So this is going to be the main focus of 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.440 today's podcast. Yeah, we're gonna be looking at the NEMO 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:53.200 program and what it does and you know how it works, Jonathan, 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.440 What does NEMOS stand for? You know, it stands for truth, 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.560 and it stands for science and the American way. American way. 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:06.240 It stands for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations. So, um, yeah, 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.960 this is all about using the undersea environment to simulate 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.280 space in various ways. And uh, it's pretty cool what 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.000 they do and how they do it and where they 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:20.159 do it. Uh, And it's it's a clever engineering way 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.200 to say, well, how can we test out these things 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.919 here on Earth. We're not spending money and potentially putting 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.520 people's lives at risk out in space where we don't 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:31.200 know for sure this is gonna work. How can we 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:36.040 be reasonably sure it works by simulating it here? And 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:38.719 it's pretty Based on the name, I'm going to guess 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:43.799 that they operate out of a globe trotting giant underwater 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.360 submarine that is disguised to look like in our wall. 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.920 Or either that or they, you know, are constantly being 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:58.680 berated by an overly anxious father. You can't go out there, Nemo, 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.599 that's the ocean. No, neither of those things are true. 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.800 It is, in fact takes place at a laboratory and 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:10.440 undersea laboratory. Oh, that's pretty cool. Called Aquarius now. Uh, 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.680 I'm fairly certain that we at least alluded to Aquarius 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:19.560 when we talked about underwater hotels. Uh. So, underwater hotels, 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.520 we've we've talked about how there are only a couple 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.000 of those that exist, and they are very limited. There. 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.599 It's like a one it's like a one room thing. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.599 In one case, it was a underwater observatory meant for 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.680 divers that wasn't intended to be an underwater hotel, but 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.640 had been repurposed as one. You've definitely talked about Aquarius 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:39.960 on tech stuff. I think I've heard you talk about. Yeah. 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:44.120 So Aquarius is the underwater facility that at one point 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.800 um was located off the coast of the US Virgin Islands. 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.000 That's originally where it was when it was built back 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:54.560 in nineteen eighty three. And it was originally called the 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.920 George F. Bond. Bond was a physician and saturation diver. 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.000 Saturation and divers. That's where you are diving to a 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.680 point where you're the the oxygen, your blood all gets dissolved, 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.320 and then you can hang out in a pressurized um 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.359 environment that's at the same pressure as the ambient pressure 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.400 of the water around you, and you just you hang out. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.839 You do science, you observe stuff, and it means you 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.520 can also go in and out of the water without 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:26.840 any sort of decompression because you are already at the 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:32.080 that ambient pressure. You you've uh become um. You have 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.680 adapted to it. However, if you want to go back 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:36.800 up to the surface, you've got to go through decompression 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:38.200 before you can do it, or else you will get 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.080 the bends. So I understand that this guy studied how 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.640 pressure affects the human body. Yeah, he was actually a 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.760 physician and a diver. And uh he was a specialist 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:53.239 in undersea and hyperbaric medicine and m passed away. Uh ine. 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:58.560 So this facility when it was at the US Virgin Islands, Uh, 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.760 it suffered some damage. Mostly it was for one thing. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.279 There's just wear and tear where stuff grows on it 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.359 and everything. And yeah, if you ever seen one of 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:11.880 these underwater like labs or facilities, they look like heck, 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.520 they're just covered with junk and barnacles and stuff. Yeah, 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.400 it doesn't look like some sort of pristine like super 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:22.400 villain layer or something like that. It's hard to clean 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.120 the exterior of an underwater habitat, and you might not 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.760 even want to write like you might be. You might 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.040 be wanting it to to you know, not interfere with 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:35.080 the various biome as much as possible. In anyway, it 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:39.760 was damaged because of Hurricane Hugo. It moved through the 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.520 area and caused some damage to the facility, so it 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:48.640 was airlifted out. It was actually you know, detached and 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:53.400 sent off to Wilmington, North Carolina, where it was refurbished 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.240 and redeployed, but this time off the coast of Key 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:58.840 Largo in the Florida Keys. So that's where it is now. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.440 Well wait, now is this a hotel these days primarily 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:04.320 or do they use it for science? This one's used 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.400 for science. This is a science one. Uh, not the 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.000 same one as the one that was used as a hotel. 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:14.120 So this one was until fairly recently. It was owned 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:18.960 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAH, and 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:23.040 specifically NOAH had the National Undersea Research Program as the 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:27.360 administrator administrator for the lab. But in two thousand thirteen, 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:32.160 NOAH decided to sell the Aquarius Laboratory. And in fact, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.800 there was a there was a time where people were 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:39.680 worried that it would mean that the the scientific endeavors 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.080 would come to an end because NASA is just one 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.360 entity that uses this undersea laboratory. It's used for all 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:51.160 sorts of stuff from studying climate change, biology experiments, diving 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.880 and medicine experiments, and also NASA uses it for the 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.480 simulations of space, so it's used for lots of stuff. 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.880 Forged at LEE, the Florida International University took ownership of 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.640 the laboratory in two thousand and thirteen out to NASA. 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.760 They allow NASA to continue to do their NEMO projects. 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:16.480 So I wonder what's it like inside? It's cozy, first 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:18.920 of all. First of all, to get there, you have 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.640 to swim down to reach the actual facility. You're swimming 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.200 down around forty seven ft, which about fourteen meters. That 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:28.240 is not the bottom of the ocean. That's on the 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.800 ocean floor there. The ocean floor is actually further down. 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.400 It's at sixty two ft below the surface, or just 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.760 under nineteen meters down. That's where the base plate is. 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:39.360 So you can think of the base plate as being 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.040 kind of the anchor point. Uh. And then the facility 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:47.160 itself is on some struts uh. And there is actually 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:51.000 a a an area called um a wet porch which 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.280 is or or also known as the the moon pool. 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.760 The moon pool is an opening inside the floor of 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.160 the facility. Uh. And you just pop up through that. 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.320 And because the facility itself is pressurized at the ambient 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.520 pressure of the ocean, you can just go from underneath 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.920 you you pop under this one divide, go up through 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.400 the moon pool, and then you're inside the facility. Yeah, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.280 it's kind of crazy. You don't even need a door. 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.080 But because of the pressure condition Yeah, the pressure keeps 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:21.400 the water out. It's just like if you were to 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.800 turn a bucket upside down and put it down into 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.280 the water. The air is going to keep the water 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:28.959 from coming into the bucket, right. So it seems like 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:31.720 it would be really unfortunate if the facility got turned 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.400 upside down. That would not be good. Yeah. There there 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.520 are many things that would be not good if you 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.360 were in this facility, like structural weakness would be not 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:41.840 good too, or if you lost the connection through your 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.319 life support buoy. Yeah, because this is not a the 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.480 lab doesn't receive electricity through an onboard generator. It doesn't. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:54.160 It doesn't have just oxygen tanks supplying the oxygen. It's 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.800 connected biblical cord. Ye. Yeah, exactly, It's gonna a biblical 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.720 cord that connects to a buoy that floats on the surface, 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.480 and it's through that that it receives electricity and oxygen 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:10.559 so that the people down below will be able to survive. Obviously, 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.520 that is an important part of doing science, is the 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:18.960 surviving part. Otherwise it's hard to continuously make observations and 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.960 test them. Uh. It's right next to a coral reef, 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:27.080 and the science projects performed there can sometimes involve things 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.840 like studying coral reef life cycles. If it's not the 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.080 NASA ones, but the others projects that happen in there. 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.720 As for the facility itself, you win inside of it. Uh, 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.720 you would have about four square feet or thirty seven 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:44.559 square meters of space to wander around. UM. The the 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:49.600 wet porch area is actually at and add on to 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.640 the um to the facility. It's kind of bolted on. 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.600 It's a squared off area that's bolted onto the end 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.880 of this almost it almost looks like a pill, like 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.280 a gel kept style pill. It kind of looks like 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.720 that in shape. It's almost cylindrical UM. And part of 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:10.600 that is because that curved wall structure is very sound 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.920 and helps, uh distribute the pressure from the water so 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.920 that you don't have these structural weakness points. Right, just 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:23.240 makes sense. So, uh, the main entry is through that 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.839 wet porch. There's also a hatch as well in case 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:32.040 they need it. But also it also that's important for decompression. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.199 You know, they have to be able to to if 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:36.040 they need to go back to the service, they have 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.160 to go through. I think it's sixteen hours of decompression 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.160 before they can leave. Yeah, because otherwise you get the bends. 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:46.480 Hopefully you can read, Yeah, I'm sure you can. Uh. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:49.679 They were they were talking about like I actually watched 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.400 they insist to be bored part of the sis. Like 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.120 you get a ball in the cup, the balls attached 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.760 to the string strings at Boring. You've got it for prayer. Yeah, 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.920 they they Actually I watched videos of some of the 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.320 guys who were down there for one of the previous 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:09.600 NEMO projects. By the way, the reason why we're even 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:15.080 talking about this is on July. The twentieth NEMO project 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.080 takes place starts on July, but that means there have 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.040 been nineteen other ones, And actually was NEMO nineteen that 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.720 I saw videos from that that crew. One of the 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.320 members of the crew took a whole series of videos 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:29.960 and they are awesome. They're great. They show you around 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.679 the facility, they talk about the science they perform and 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:37.199 the experiments they're doing to test space procedures and tools, 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.360 and it's really interesting to get, you know, an inside 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.760 look at this. But it is really tiny. There are 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.000 six bunks, so only six people can stay down here 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:49.800 at a time, and they may stay there for up 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:54.040 to three weeks and ago, so three weeks of being 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.040 down in this little can with five other people and 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.160 you can't go up to the surface unless you first 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.480 go through six hours of decompression. Uh. That sense of 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.040 isolation is an important part of what they're doing, because 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:10.440 when you're in space, you are also isolated. So this 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.679 it's not just about testing the equipment and the processes 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.280 and the tools, but human psychology to test. You know, 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.040 is this something we should consider doing because look at 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.880 the stress it puts on people, and what are the 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:27.640 best ways of dealing with that stress and are there 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:31.560 ways that can help decrease it so that this sense 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:38.000 of isolation isn't overpowering or causing anxiety. Really interesting stuff. Um, 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:42.360 and you also have windows, so you can actually see 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.520 outside and see the little fishy swim by. Not the 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.520 operating system, No you don't. I mean you could have 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.120 a computer that's running on Windows, but no, I mean 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:54.760 that the actual facility itself has portals that you can 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.960 look through and see the beauteous fishies as they swim by, 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.560 and possibly say Disney tunes to you. If you have 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:07.200 ocean madness, just kind of like space madness, but it's underwater. 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.360 Uh so that's the kind of madness you have to 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:16.480 wait sixteen hours to escape it exactly, which it sounds 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.040 like some of the flights I've taken in the past. Uh. 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.960 The undersea environment does serve as an analog for space. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.640 Like we said, it's a hostile environment. So just like space, 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:28.560 you have to have protective gear on in order to survive. 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:32.240 You've got to psychologically get used to the hostile environment, right, Yeah, 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.680 that's very important. Just as the isolation is a factor, 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:36.400 so is the factor of you've got to get used 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.920 to the fact that you are in a place where 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:42.280 without your equipment working properly, you will die. Yeah. Yeah, 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.200 that's I mean, that's something that you have to be 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.760 able to deal with. Obviously, navigating underwater is not easy, 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.040 nor is traveling around in space. They've talked about how 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.160 sometimes you encounter a current that's so strong that it's 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:59.160 like walking against a really powerful wind, which could potentially 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.520 be something that you would encounter on an alien world, 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:06.240 depending upon where you're going. Um. They also say that, 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.880 you know, they want to test the basic tasks that 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.280 would be really simple on a normal planet, right, Like, like, 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.120 let's say we're on Earth, because we are, and we 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:19.440 wanted to dig a hole, Give me a shovel, I 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.360 can dig a hole, and assuming that the ground is 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.000 not so hard that I can't shovel, Actually I kind 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.640 of doubt your whole digging abilities. You know, I will 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:32.320 test that after this episode, But uh, give me a 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.600 shovel and kill me. I can't not threatening to kill you. 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.000 So so at any rate, Uh, you know, it may 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.560 something that might be easy on the surface of Earth 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.800 could be incredibly difficult in other situations. So, for example, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:52.240 if you're on a a low gravity environment, how hard 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:54.760 would it be to get a course a soil sample, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.200 not coral sample, but a soil sample from that planet, 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.560 which would be a typical science experiment that you would 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:05.440 expect astronauts to do on a different planet, like on Mars. 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:10.160 So they've tested this by giving an aqua knot, which 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.720 is what they call the the crew that goes down 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.800 to Aquarius to test this kind of stuff. Uh, They've 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.400 given an aquanaut of shovel. They wait the aquanaut down 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.840 to the appropriate level that will simulate the amount of 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:26.320 gravity they would experience on whatever destination they have in mind, 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.000 and say, all right, here's the location you need to 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.879 go to. We need a soil sample from that location 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.040 using this shovel as your tool. And then they observe 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.360 to see does it work? Is it hard? How difficult 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.400 is it? Is there some way of making that easier 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.640 for people when they do go to Mars. So that 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.600 they're able to perform the science without it being you know, 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.359 despite the tools, instead of because of the tools. They 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.240 want to make sure that the tools are useful and 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.080 not an impediment. Yeah, and I'm sure it's got to 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.359 be similar to extra vehicular activity in space and that 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:02.040 you're dealing with like hard time limits and stuff. Absolutely. Yeah. 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.360 You you are only able to stay out there as 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.000 long as your oxygen right supply is able to give 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.560 you oxygen. So the people who are on these e 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.280 v as, the extra vehicular activities, the same thing that 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.880 they call them out in space. They refer to anything 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.200 that requires you to go outside of the aquarious laboratory 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.600 as an e v A, And there could be dozens 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:24.160 of them within a span of a full NEMO project 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.600 like the one I looked at for NEMO. I think 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.280 it was fifteen or sixteen. There were like twenty two 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.120 e v as planned over the course of it. That's 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.000 a lot. But you are limited by the amount of 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:37.920 oxygen that you have with you, just as you would 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.320 be in space. Uh. You know, sometimes you might have 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.280 an umbilical cord attaching you back to the um, to 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.679 the to the laboratory, just as you could have a 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.320 spacecraft that had that same sort of feature to it, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:54.600 but even so you're still limited. So that's important. And 0:18:54.800 --> 0:19:00.000 it's built in so that when these these tasks are 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:04.560 are transferred from the undersea environment out into space, NASA 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.880 can be reasonably sure that the astronauts will be able 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.360 to complete them in the time necessary to do so. 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:12.880 If it takes too long to do then it needs 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:17.120 to either be redesigned or abandoned. Yeah, that's crazy. It's 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.160 something that I think most people have never even thought 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:22.840 about when it comes to space missions, Just like, how 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.359 do you estimate how long it's going to take to 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:30.000 do something in space? And and we're talking about everything 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:34.160 from complex maneuvers like they they have, uh, you know, 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.560 they have essentially the equivalent of the jet packs that 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.560 that astronauts would use in space to move around, but 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.679 they have the water version, like everything from something as 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.120 complex as that to something as simple as moving through 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.800 a hatch, just to test to make sure that the suits, 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.920 which are designed to be as close to space suit 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:58.320 technology as possible, uh, and the hatch itself are designed 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:03.479 such a way that the astronauts can easily move through them. Obviously, 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:05.520 if they can't then that's a problem. Something needs to 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:07.480 be redesigned, either on the suit or on the hatch 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.800 or both. And that's why they have these really extensive tests, 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:15.360 is to test everything from the people, to the equipment 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.280 to the actual methodology they're using. One other thing that 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.960 happens in space is that you know, the further way 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:24.240 from Earth get, the longer it takes for messages to 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.600 get from Earth to you and from you back to Earth. Right. 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.040 We saw this with the Curiosity rover landing. We people 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:34.679 talked about how the rover had been on the surface 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.520 of Mars for several minutes, but we didn't know if 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.880 it had landed successfully. So while we're waiting to find out, 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.440 it was already happily sitting not happily because I didn't 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.359 have emotions, but it was sitting there safely on the 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:49.560 surface of the planet. But we had no way of 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:52.080 knowing because it took time for the information to travel 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:54.000 from Mars to get to Earth. It could only travel 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.520 the speed of light. So while I say only in 0:20:57.600 --> 0:20:59.840 the speed of light is the best thing in the universe, 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.359 that's still a limiting factor. And so in order to 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:10.680 simulate that, NASA puts in essentially artificial delays in communications 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:17.560 and builds that into the various missions. So if people 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.040 aboard the aquarious lab need to talk to mission control, 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.520 there's a delay, and there's a delay in the message 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.639 coming back. It teaches people to be very concise and 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.920 very specific when they are communicating, because if what they're 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.080 saying is not clear, they have to wait sometimes up 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:38.440 to twenty minutes for them to receive the message saying 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:40.399 I'm sorry, I didn't understand that, and then you have 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:42.639 to do it again, and keeping in mind that the 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.960 other people are waiting ten minutes from when they said 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.560 it before it gets to you, and then another ten 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.159 minutes for your reply to come back. It's very It 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:56.160 indicates the need for clear, concise communication, and it teaches 0:21:56.640 --> 0:22:00.520 like NASA how to make these sort of communications more effective. 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.240 You know that that's a class they should teach in college. 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:08.520 They've got technical writing, business writing, creative writing, but they 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:14.280 don't have communications styled for interplanetary radio transmission. Obviously I 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:19.240 would fail that course a little at uh So, the 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.880 very first NEMO project began on October twenty one, two 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:25.480 thousand one, and like I said, we're moving up on 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:29.879 NEMO twenty now, so, uh, you know, was it like 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.760 being there? If you watch those videos, you'll get a 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:35.000 good feel for it. But like I said, it's tight quarters. 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:37.639 You've got six months. They're stationed at one end of 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:43.359 the Aquarius lab um, and you might have somewhere in 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:45.960 the neighborhood of twenty to twenty five different v as 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.919 planned for the duration of your mission. They're depending on 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.720 and that could last as long as three weeks. Ah, 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:57.800 you would end up testing out lots of different variations 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:01.160 of the same stuff because really you're trying to gather 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:04.040 as much information as possible about things that will potentially 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:07.320 used in space. So there have been NEMO missions where 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:10.680 really it's been all about testing the same space suit 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:13.680