Halton students finding NEEMO14 a real trip

May 27, 2010

By Jason Misner
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, HDSB STAFF

Submerged 20 metres in water off the Florida Keys in the world's only undersea laboratory, lauded Canadian astronaut and Milton-raised Chris Hadfield talked to 150 ‘dry docked’ Halton District School Board secondary students about his latest and unique mission during a national videoconference.

Referred to as NEEMO 14 (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations), Hadfield, a member of the Canadian Space Agency, just completed eading a six-person crew to test exploration concepts in an underwater environment off the Florida coast. The mission started May 10 and concluded Sunday (May 23).

Since the underwater environment is similar to human space flight, NEEMO 14 aimed to use the ocean floor to simulate exploration missions to the surface of asteroids, moons and Mars. The mission is designed to gain a better understanding of how astronaut crews interact with equipment including advanced spacesuits, a lander, a rover and robotic arms.

The crew lived aboard Aquarius – it’s cousin being the International Space Station - which is a three-by-14-metre steel cylinder equipped with computers linked to shore, as well as Internet, telephones, radios and videoconferencing equipment. Crew members ventured out on simulated spacewalks, operating the robotic arm and maneuvering the vehicles much like would be done when setting up a habitat on another planet.

A 24-hour-a-day crew onshore watched over the station for safety reasons.

On Tuesday afternoon (May 18), NEEMO 14’s goal was a little more personal, as Hadfield spent an hour talking about his mission and answering questions from the 1,500 inquisitive students from Ontario, Alberta and Quebec who took part in the videoconference set up by the Canadian Space Agency.

The Ontario conference was held at Georgetown District High School, which was approached by the space agency to participate as the school has hosted astronaut videoconferences in the past.
GDHS Grade 12 students, Keith Cockburn and Jared Whalen, were selected to ask Hadfield questions they submitted prior to the day of the videoconference. 

Cockburn asked about isolation in the station and how the underwater work will benefit future astronauts; Whalen asked whether astronauts would be sent to Mars in the next 20 years.

“He acted so calmly in such a high pressure environment,” said Cockburn after the videoconference ended.

Whalen thought the videoconference was a “great experience” and he enjoyed the question-and-answer format because it allowed him to learn more details about Hadfield and his mission.

Sitting next to a 10-centimetres thick glass window in Aquarius showing water all around him, Hadfield ─ who took scuba training and is called an ‘aquanaut’ as part of the underwater expedition ─ talked about how he wants the crew to make sure they tell each other what they’re feeling while isolated under the sea.

“We have dinner together so we have a chance to talk about the experience,” he said, adding he brought a guitar with him so everyone can sing on the station to remain mentally fresh. “I try to make sure everybody really talks about how they’re feeling.”

He also talked about the seabed being a comparable space environment because, for example, NASA can mimic gravity; high-tech equipment is on board monitoring the crews’ health; being “far enough down (underwater) that the air pressure crushes things”, and Hadfield uses a can of almonds to show it didn’t crush because a hole was popped in the top; that the underwater station is actually “noisy” due to things like fans and pumps; and the crew takes turns writing a daily blog entry. 

“We are down here living in a very unusual and what would be a dangerous place,” said Hadfield, who has a Halton District School Board school named after him in Milton.

Asked about the current massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and how it will affect the planet, Hadfield, acknowledging ocean currents could take the oil slick up the North American east coast, responded: “We just don’t know.”

Excited Georgetown District High School physics teacher Olga Michalopoulos ─ once an aspiring astronaut herself ─ helped arrange for the Halton students to participate in the videoconference. She said she hopes the students learned to challenge themselves to try to do great things in their lives. 

“You never stop learning no matter how old you get,” she said, adding there’s been a movement to incorporate space studies into science classrooms. “What an opportunity for our students.”