NEEMO

NEEMO, an acronym for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, is a NASA analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research station, for up to three weeks at a time in preparation for future space exploration.

Aquarius is an underwater habitat located 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) off Key Largo, Florida in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It is deployed on the ocean floor next to deep coral reefs 62 feet (19 meters) below the surface.

NASA has used it since 2001 for a series of space exploration simulation missions, usually lasting 7 to 14 days, with space research mainly conducted by international astronauts. The mission had costed about 500 million U.S. dollars. The crew members are called aquanauts (as they live underwater at depth pressure for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface), and they perform EVAs in the underwater environment. A technique known as saturation diving allows the aquanauts to live and work underwater for days or weeks at a time. After twenty four hours underwater at any depth, the human body becomes saturated with dissolved gas. With saturation diving, divers can accurately predict exactly how much time they need to decompress before returning to the surface. This information limits the risk of decompression sickness. By living in the Aquarius habitat and working at the same depth on the ocean floor, NEEMO crews are able to remain underwater for the duration of their mission.

For NASA, the Aquarius habitat and its surroundings provide a convincing analog for space exploration. Much like space, the undersea world is a hostile, alien place for humans to live. NEEMO crew members experience some of the same challenges there that they would on a distant asteroid, planet (i.e. Mars) or Moon. During NEEMO missions, the aquanauts are able to simulate living on a spacecraft and test spacewalk techniques for future space missions. Working in space and underwater environments requires extensive planning and sophisticated equipment. The underwater condition has the additional benefit of allowing NASA to "weight" the aquanauts to simulate different gravity environments.

Until 2012, Aquarius was owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the National Undersea Research Center (NURC) at the University of North Carolina–Wilmington as a marine biology study base.

Since 2013, Aquarius is owned by the Florida International University (FIU). As part of the FIU Marine Education and Research Initiative, the Medina Aquarius Program is dedicated to the study and preservation of marine ecosystems worldwide and is enhancing the scope and impact of FIU on research, educational outreach, technology development, and professional training. At the heart of the program is the Aquarius Reef Base.

NEEMO 1: October 21–27, 2001
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Bill Todd, Commander
 * Michael L. Gernhardt
 * Michael López-Alegría
 * Dafydd Williams, CSA

NURC Support Crew:
 * Mark Hulsbeck
 * Ryan Snow

NEEMO 2: May 13–20, 2002
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Michael Fincke, Commander
 * Daniel M. Tani
 * Sunita Williams
 * Marc Reagan

NURC Support Crew:
 * Thor Dunmire
 * Ryan Snow

NEEMO 3: July 15–21, 2002
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Jeffrey Williams, Commander
 * Gregory Chamitoff
 * John D. Olivas
 * Jonathan Dory

NURC Support Crew:
 * Byron Croker
 * Michael Smith

NEEMO 4: September 23–27, 2002
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Scott Kelly, Commander
 * Paul Hill
 * Rex Walheim
 * Jessica Meir

NURC Support Crew:
 * James Talacek
 * Ryan Snow

NEEMO 5: June 16–29, 2003
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Peggy Whitson, Commander
 * Clayton Anderson
 * Garrett Reisman
 * Emma Hwang

NURC Support Crew:
 * James Talacek
 * Ryan Snow

NEEMO 6: July 12–21, 2004
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * John Herrington, Commander
 * Nicholas Patrick
 * Douglas H. Wheelock
 * Tara Ruttley

NURC Support Crew:
 * Craig B. Cooper
 * Joseph March
 * Marc Reagan, Mission Director

NEEMO 7: October 11–21, 2004
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Robert Thirsk, Commander
 * Catherine Coleman
 * Michael R. Barratt
 * Craig McKinley

NURC Support Crew:
 * James Talacek
 * Billy Cooksey
 * Bill Todd, Mission Director

NEEMO 8: April 20–22, 2005
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Michael L. Gernhardt, Commander
 * John D. Olivas
 * Scott Kelly
 * Monika Schultz

NURC Support Crew:
 * Craig B. Cooper
 * Joseph March
 * Bill Todd, Mission Director

NEEMO 9: April 3–20, 2006
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Dafydd Williams, Commander
 * Nicole P. Stott
 * Ronald J. Garan, Jr.
 * Timothy J. Broderick, M.D.

NURC Support Crew:
 * James F. Buckley
 * Ross Hein
 * Marc Reagan, Mission Director

NEEMO 10: July 22–28, 2006
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Koichi Wakata, Commander
 * Andrew Feustel
 * Karen L. Nyberg
 * Karen Kohanowich

NURC Support Crew:
 * Mark Hulsbeck
 * Dominic Landucci
 * Marc Reagan, Mission Director

NEEMO 11: September 16–22, 2006
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Sandra Magnus, Commander
 * Timothy Kopra
 * Robert L. Behnken
 * Timothy Creamer

NURC Support Crew:
 * Larry Ward
 * Roger Garcia
 * Marc Reagan, Mission Director

NEEMO 12: May 7–18, 2007
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Commander
 * José M. Hernández
 * Josef Schmid, M.D.
 * Timothy J. Broderick, M.D.

NURC Support Crew:
 * Dominic Landucci
 * James Talacek
 * Marc Reagan, Mission Director

NEEMO 13: August 6–15, 2007
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Nicholas Patrick, Commander
 * Richard R. Arnold
 * Satoshi Furukawa
 * Christopher E. Gerty

NURC Support Crew:
 * James F. Buckley
 * Dewey Smith
 * Marc Reagan, Mission Director

NEEMO 14: May 10–23, 2010
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Chris Hadfield, Commander
 * Thomas H. Marshburn
 * Andrew Abercromby
 * Steve Chappell

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:
 * James Talacek
 * Nate Bender
 * Eli Quinn
 * Bill Todd, Mission Director

NEEMO 15: October 20–26, 2011
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Shannon Walker, Commander
 * Takuya Onishi
 * David Saint-Jacques
 * Steve Squyres

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:
 * James Talacek
 * Nate Bender

DeepWorker 2000 submersible crew:
 * Stanley G. Love
 * Richard R. Arnold
 * Michael L. Gernhardt

NEEMO 16: June 11–22, 2012
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Commander
 * Kimiya Yui
 * Timothy Peake
 * Steve Squyres

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:
 * James Talacek
 * Justin Brown

DeepWorker 2000 submersible crew:
 * Stanley G. Love
 * Steve Giddings
 * Serena M. Auñón
 * Bill Todd
 * Michael L. Gernhardt
 * Andrew Abercromby
 * Steve Chappell

SEATEST II: Sept 9-13, 2013
Space Environment Analog for Testing EVA Systems and Training ( NEEMO 17 ) Designation skipped

NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Joseph M. Acaba, Commander
 * Kate Rubins
 * Andreas Mogensen
 * Soichi Noguchi
 * Thomas Pesquet

Aquarius Reef Base support crew:
 * Mark Hulsbeck
 * Otto Rutten

NEEMO 18: July 21–29, 2014
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Akihiko Hoshide, Commander
 * Jeanette J. Epps
 * Mark T. Vande Hei
 * Thomas Pesquet

NEEMO 19: September 7–13, 2014
NASA Aquanaut Crew: Aquarius Reef Base support crew:
 * Randolph Bresnik, Commander
 * Andreas Mogensen, Flight Engineer 1
 * Jeremy Hansen, Flight Engineer 2
 * Hervé Stevenin, Flight Engineer 3
 * Mark Hulsbeck
 * Ryan LaPete
 * Eli quinn c.e.o

NEEMO 20: July 20 - August 2, 2015
NASA Aquanaut Crew:
 * Luca Parmitano, ESA, commander
 * Serena M. Auñón, NASA
 * David Coan, NASA EVA Management Office engineer
 * Norishige Kanai, JAXA

Professional habitat technicians, Aquarius Reef Base support crew
 * Mark Hulsbeck (FIU)
 * Sean Moore (FIU)

NEEMO 20 mission objective was to simulate the time-delays associated with sending and receiving commands between controllers on Earth and astronauts on Mars. Additional EVAs will simulate working on the surface of an asteroid, and the use of DeepWorker submersible as an underwater standin for the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle.