![]() Panels in the bottom of the tank are also being inserted to create inclines and declines, to help astronauts prepare for the sandy and steep slopes moonwalks require. Engineered sand, lying on the pool floor, is designed to mimic the regolith astronauts will step upon while on the lunar surface. The NBL moon training will take advantage of a more controlled environment, however. Related: 'Aquanauts' complete mock asteroid mission on ocean floor ![]() Astronauts and divers alike have partnered there for futuristic asteroid missions by humans, among other things. Swims and simulated 'spacewalks' happen near the submerged Aquarius habitat in coastal Florida. For example, NASA has been practicing underwater excursions for years during its NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) missions. Lessons learned are drawn from all the literature available, too. Weights and flotations are used to keep spacesuited divers at one-sixth of the Earth's gravity, similar to the moon's conditions. The NBL was not available to astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s when the Apollo program last brought people to the moon, so a lot of new things are being learned to simulate moonwalks. Recovery operations for the NASA Artemis 1 moon mission were practiced for years within the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory to account for different splashdown conditions, like an upside-down capsule. As the team gained experience, they moved to the Gulf of Mexico "to simulate some more realistic states" in open water so the team would be ready for an Atlantic Ocean splashdown. "It could not have gone better," Tomlinson said of the recovery, which happened after plenty of NBL practice to shelter from outside conditions in pristine, calm waters. That uncrewed 2022 mission not only sent the astronaut-rated Orion spacecraft around the moon for the first time, but had a flawless splashdown in part due to years of training and preparation for recovery operations. Other moon work is also ongoing at the water surface level of NBL: V2X participated in simulated landing operations of the Artemis 1 mission after years of practice in the pool. "It's a very, very important thing to do not only for our people, but if you think about the astronauts who are training, we supply their breathing gas. "Everybody has to be laser-focused on safety at all times," Clay Tomlinson, V2X program manager, told in an interview. ![]() The company emphasizes that the work is being done carefully and procedurally to keep all participants safe and aware of the environment, just like other clients in NBL training (as the facility serves both NASA and commercial customers.) Safety is top of mind in all these efforts, officials have emphasized. Tests are ongoing to make the underwater conditions as realistic as possible for future moonwalkers, including ways of recreating the partial (one-sixth) gravity of the moon. ![]()
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