Table of Contents

NEEMO 14 - Mission Teams

NEEMO Teams and Key Personnel

In addition to the participants in NEEMO saturation dives, teams of technicians and scientists worked above the surface. They monitored Aquarius' systems and stayed in contact with the underwater crew.

Surface Support Team

The Surface Support Team included the NEEMO project lead, the mission lead, and the dive medical officer and support personnel. This team resided at the National Undersea Research Center, or NURC, during the mission and training. Overall responsibility and authority for NASA objectives during NASA missions resided with the NEEMO mission lead on this team.

Aquanaut Crew

This team consisted of the four aquanaut personnel from NASA that went into "saturation," living aboard Aquarius for the duration of the dive.

Habtechs

Two NURC employee/aquanauts accompanied the NEEMO crew into saturation. Their primary responsibilities were the operation of the Aquarius on-board systems and the safety of the aquanauts.

Watch Desk

The watch desk was the NURC version of NASA's Mission Control Center. It was located onshore and was staffed by a team of two employees 24 hours a day during the mission. Watch desk personnel were primarily responsible for the overall safety of the mission, monitoring the telemetry of the facility and approving all of the aquanaut dive plans. The watch desk lead was the ultimate authority on safety issues such as storm evacuation, medical emergencies, habitat system contingencies and dive plan approval.

Principal Investigators

These individuals were responsible for developing much of the science conducted by the aquanauts. They monitored the mission from a remote control center or in some instances from the NURC facilities. They periodically interfaced with the crew real-time during the mission to facilitate the science needs.