Yesterday was an exciting day for both the crew and " topside" as our program was featured in a live CNN interview with Miles O'Brien and also on the cover of the Houston Chronicle. It was a bit amusing to see the activity as a large CNN semi-truck parked here at the National Undersea Research Center since we are actually located in a residential type neighborhood. A few of the neighbors stood out and watched but interestingly, no-one asked what we were doing. The crew did a great job answering the questions although I don't think Craig Cooper, the Operations Director here liked " Aquarius" being called the " Yellow Submarine."

Which brings me to the next subject, which I thought some of you may be interested in - the process of decompression. Tomorrow is a very critical day for the crew in that at about 4:00 PM they will start the in-water decompression process. Since the crew is not in a "yellow submarine," they have been exposed the entire mission to the increased pressure at their living depth, about 47 feet. At that depth, their bodies have taken on added amounts of nitrogen - absorbed in their body tissues - that must be "washed out." prior to surfacing. To return to the surface, they will have to go through a 17 hour process called " decompression." This is a very safe procedure that is accomplished in several steps: 1) The crew breathes pure oxygen for 3 short intervals to help wash out nitrogen in their blood 2) the main living quarters are "locked out" from the "wet porch" area and the internal habitat pressure is slowly brought to surface pressure by exhausting air to the surface, and finally , 3) the habitat Entry Lock is " blown down" to the 47 foot level in just two minutes.. the hatch is opened and the crew swims to the surface.

Hope you have enjoyed the "topside" report... see you next time as NEEMO 4 takes the helm for our September mission.

All the best from the "topside" team,

Bill, Marc, Monika and Michelle