#Aquanauts away. On 21 July, a crew of six astronauts splashed down in scuba gear into the Aquarius Reef Base, an underwater #research station 19 meters below the waves off the coast of Florida. The team’s 16 day mission, NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), will test gadgets and skills for a future trip to #Mars. It’s the 21st mission of its kind since #NEEMO began in 2001. This time, communications between the crew and ground control imitate the delay between Mars and Earth – about 15 minutes in each direction. The aquanauts wear an experimental headset called mobiPV that streams video back to base and lets them talk hands-free. The close quarters of the #Aquarius station mimic the conditions of a space station or spacecraft. Photo credit: NASA/Karl Shreeves #explore #ocean #nasa #beautiful