aquaholly
Registered
In 1993 an underwater decompression chamber was submerged to 62 feet below the oceans surface in hopes of gathering mass information on marine preservation at first hand in this underwater habitat. More than 120 mission preformed by specialized divers as well as astronauts in training have been completed since the chambers deployment.
I had the pleasure of taking part in this once in a lifetime diving experience during Mission NEEMO18. During this mission, four astronauts and two marine biologists (Some from my hometown in Texas) also known as Aquanauts, were to spend 9 days in aquarius developing skills needed to complete international space station missions as well as long term exploration missions at zero gravity.
My former student Juliet Pinto and I woke up bright and early to drive down to Islamorada the day after the Aquanauts began NEEMO18. We arrived at the boat and everyone picked out their gear. We headed out to the Aquarius site and the volunteers began going through a series of checklists as we approached the site, I noticed an array of marker buoys not allowing non-research vessels to enter the protected area. In the middle of the base was a tower, which I later found out was a life support buoy that delivers compressed air to the Aquanauts.
On the boat were air tight containers which were used in transportation of food to the Aquanauts. The volunteers from Texas A&M explained to me the issues with buoyancy when it comes to transporting the containers. When the containers are empty, they become neutrally buoyant. However, when filled with heavier items, for example, soda cans the containers would descend rapidly to the bottom and were very hard to control.
The volunteers also explained that when you enter the reef base your voice changes because of the pressure. When the mission is over, the chamber will recompress the Aquanauts to a safe atmospheric pressure and dissolve the accumulated nitrogen making it safe for the Aquanauts to gear up and scuba dive to the surface. During this recompression process, the Aquanauts would actually have to equalize their ears in the chamber due to the on going pressure changes.
All in all, my experience at Aquarius Reef Base was life changing and made me realize how limitless the oceans can really be. Maybe one day we will all be living 60 feet below the surface. Watch my personal experience in the video below:
[video=vimeo;102619840]http://vimeo.com/102619840[/video]
