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Mission Journal 1-Lew Nuckols: Mission Day 1: Thursday, April 24, 2003 It's good to be back! I first became acquainted with Aquarius on a saturation mission in 1988 when the habitat was located in Salt River Canyon in St Croix, US Virgin Islands. During that mission I was constantly aware that although we aquanauts could live for days at a time underwater without surfacing, we were always dependent on the surface support crew to supply most of our daily needs inside the habitat, and supply our air requirements for excursions away from the habitat. Although we realized then that we were prevented from surfacing before a lengthy decompression procedure, we seldom found ourselves alone from surface contact due to their frequent visits necessary to satisfy our daily needs. Fifteen years later, I can honestly say that I am more impressed than ever with the incredible undersea resource that the scientific community has in Aquarius. Today, aquanauts are more autonomous than ever from the surface. Due to remote air charging stations, no longer are aquanauts dependent on the surface crew to make their excursions from the habitat. Although we have been in the habitat for the present mission for more than 10 hours in our first day, we have been separated from surface contact other than through phone communications and telemetry. The result, more autonomy for undersea researchers and less constraints on their missions. Great progress!
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Mission
Date: April, 2003 Mission Summary Aquanaut Profiles Expedition Journals Mission Pictures |
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