Selparis

Aim for the stars? Sorry, you’re going to have more reasonable expectations. How about Mars? The way we’re going, I’ll be lucky to see that in my lifetime, and I’m only 29. How about a return trip to the Moon? Well, after the way everyone in the media laughed at Newt Gingrich‘s campaign goal of establishing a permanent base on the Moon, I’m guessing the public’s not up for that project.

But don’t despair: for some strange reason, asteroids have really captured everyone’s imagination. Billionaires, space programs, and the public seem to all be happy with aiming for the asteroids. I don’t understand why – surely there is a greater probability of finding all sorts of minerals on the Moon or Mars – but perhaps asteroid are all we have the guts for these days. Plus, they get all sorts of movie attention. Have you ever seen a Hollywood film about us the successful Apollo missions? No, all we got was the failure – Apollo 13. How about a movie about a mission to Mars? Only if we meet something unpleasant there. The only time our space program has any success in the movies is when it comes to asteroids

So, enter NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) 16, the latest in the training programs for astronauts being prepared to work in deep space, which take place underwater:

Aquarius - the NEEMO lab (courtesy NASA)

The first NEEMO mission occurred in 2001, and they have since been essential in helping us get an idea about what astronauts might need in order to work in such a hostile environment. But what kind of deep space mission are the astronauts of NEEMO 16 being trained for? You guessed it – according to this article from the Telegraph, it’s to land and work on asteroids.

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