Can you believe it?! Astronauts to Aquanauts! AMAZING! According to a news article which I had read a few days ago, it is written that astronauts now have to work and live under water! Obviously, it is easy to conjure up images of astronauts working in deep black space, however, nowadays there are also astronauts living and working on the sea floor, where they conduct experiments to prepare for future space missions.


To prove this, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, Chris Hadfield has actually spent most of the past two weeks about 19 meters below the waves off the Florida coast! During these period of time, he was leading a two-week NASA mission aboard the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory, which is run by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.


Chris Hadfield's team includes a NASA astronaut, an undersea engineer and a scientist. They live inside Aquarius and carry out experiments in the lab; at the same time, exploring the blue depths outside the porthole windows.

According to the news article, Chris Hadfield said that, "I found that when I was working outside here over the last couple of weeks, I would suddenly notice where I am while I'm working. I'm busy working on some part of a space suit design, and then an angel fish goes by or a ray scuttles across the bottom of the ocean, and it reminds me of both the comfort-level I've gotten to and the amazing difference of where I am,".

During the two weeks, Hadfield was on the sea floor inside the Aquarius underwater habitat's 122 square meters of living and working space which was anchored next to a coral reef, five and half kilometers off Key Largo in the Florida Keys.

 
Even on the ocean floor, Aquarius is still visible on the World Wide Web where Commander Hadfield can be seen via webcam on NASA's web site. He stands in a narrow white room with stainless steel equipment as he speaks to reporters using something that looks akin to a cordless phone.


It is the round window that looks out into the pale blue water that provides the biggest clue to Hadfield's whereabouts. The view might be serene, however, the undersea environment is potentially deadly to humans, just as space is. Just some contextual knowledge, he has completed two spacewalks in his 18 years as an astronaut and he said there are similarities between working in space and in the sea.

"They are remarkably similar. You are wearing gear to protect you from an environment that would kill you. Every breath is amplified so you sound like [famed Star War's character] Darth Vader when you're out walking around out there. You're listening to help from someone inside the vehicle and someone back at mission control, as they try to help give you advice as you work on something complex outside," he said.


In his 'vacation' underwater, it is said that the crew will have conducted a total of 52 so-called "space walks" in the sea! Chris Hadfield also said that these underwater tests actually help astronauts to figure out how much mass they need to propel themselves forward when in space.


So, as you can see, what astronauts have to do now is not just flying in space or making a first step on a planet, now they are faced with greater challenges and make mankind's first step on the seafloor...... (Well, perhaps lots of people had already done it.)