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NEEMO 7
IMAGE: NEEMO 7 Mission Commander Robert Thirsk
NEEMO 7 Mission Commander Robert Thirsk prepares for a training dive.
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*NEEMO 7 Journals

NEEMO 7 Journals

NEEMO 7, Topside Team
Day 1, Monday, October 11, 2004

Greetings!

The 7th NEEMO mission has officially begun with a 11:25 EST "splashdown" of the crew, following an intense week of training all last week.

This project is being conducted by the Center for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and NASA. (CMAS is a not-for-profit group located at St-Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario and supported by the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.) The Principal Investigator on this project is Dr. Mehran Anvari. The co-investigators are Dr. Paul Whelan and Dr. Julian Dobranowski. The Mission Commander is Dr. Robert Thirsk, M.D., a CSA astronaut, accompanied by NASA astronaut crewmates Dr. Mike Barratt, M.D., and Col. Cady Coleman, Ph.D. and Dr. Craig McKinley, M.D. from CMAS. The Mission Director is Bill Todd from United Space Alliance, along with the rest of the Topside Team: Monika Schultz, Michelle Lucas, and Marc Reagan from JSC, Trevor Chapman from CMAS, Jean-Marc Comtois, Pat Sullivan, and Louise Beauchamp from CSA and Tim Broderick from University of Cincinnati. The project goal is to evaluate the use of tele-mentoring and tele-robotics in performing emergency diagnostic, surgical and interventional therapies in a confined environment (as found in space flight.)

The aquanauts first objective today was a two hour "EVA" to a site about 450 feet from the habitat to survey the area for future mission operations. Shortly after the two-hour long dive, the crew entered the habitat and started their "post insertion" activities, which consisted of setting up computers, conducting a safety briefing, and eating lunch. In the afternoon they conducted another site orientation, and had a Daily Planning Conference (DPC) with the Topside Team and the ExPOC (our Mission Control team in Houston.) The first day has been compared with Post Insertion day on a Shuttle flight: many activities to accomplish in a short amount of time, plus the overhead of learning to live in a strange new place. The crew was in great spirits as we ended our DPC.

Curator: Kim Dismukes | Responsible NASA Official: John Ira Petty | Updated: 10/14/2004
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