Life in Aquarius has been an incredible experience so far. How strange and exciting to live and work among the creatures of the sea as though you were on of them. Having never before had the opportunity to spend so much consecutive time on the sea floor, I can truly see now the value in having a permanent base established from which to perform excursions into the deep. Here, scientist have the luxury of both long excursion times and close proximity to an enormous diversity of life, making it possible to not only cover a lot of ground, but to spend hours at a time observing the minute details of life in the sea.

Aquarius provides a habitat, not only for Aquanauts, but for an abundance of fish, corals, and other sea creatures. Beneath it's shadows, schools of fish swim and live, occasionally inspecting the humans inside through its portals and moon pool. A common perspective is to feel as though we are in the aquarium and living only for the amusement of the fish outside who come to watch us eat in the main lock.

Life so far has been busy, a constant battle against the timeline to maintain our schedule. Far from being our enemy however, the timeline is a valuable tool to ensure that every task that we wish to accomplish gets completed and that nothing is overlooked. It is a sanity check that ensures that all of us, and particularly the topside team of Bill, Monika, Marc, and Michelle are in concurrence on the activities of the day and week ahead.

Aquarius is one part space module, one part submarine, and one part mobile home. It offers solace from the suffocating waters outside and provides everything that we need to live, work, eat, and sleep in comfort within its 13 by 3 meter hull. Quarters are tight, and living here has given me new respect for those who spend months on the Space Station with no opportunities to stretch their fins outside daily as we do.