Can Sea Lab Stay Afloat?

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2004

BY GARETH MCGRATH Staff Writer Can sea lab stay afloat? Before they’re strapped into the space shuttle and launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral into a cold and unforgiv- ing environment, many NASA astro- nauts head to UNCW to train in an equally challenging environment. For several years the nation’s space agency has been sending astronauts to “deep sea” school at UNCW to help prepare them for the rigors of space travel. The training involves turning the future space explorers into “aqua- nauts” and placing them aboard the school’s Florida-based undersea laboratory for a week or longer at a time. But an ever-tightening fiscal noose could soon cost the University of North Carolina at Wilmington its win- dow into the ocean – which also hap- pens to be the only undersea research lab in the world. The loss of the facil- ity would also jeopardize NASA train- ing that would be hard to replicate anywhere else. “This will be a watershed year for the National Undersea Research Pro- gram,” said U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C. Moored to the ocean’s bottom in the 63-foot-deep crystal clear waters off Key Largo is Aquarius, a feder- ally owned research capsule managed STAR-NEWS FILE by UNCW. In this image from 2000, Mike Smith, a research diver at UNCW, communicates using hand signals with aquanauts What makes Aquarius unique and inside ‘Aquarius,’ an undersea laboratory off the Florida Keys. very useful for training space explor- ers is both its environment, which requires an extensive decompression Loss of ‘Aquarius’ would be felt from the ocean to the stars procedure after extended stays, and ing and research space, the undersea nounced plans to return Americans Houston. its shape. lab is also similar in size to the Inter- to the moon and then to Mars within But before the astronauts face the “The beauty of Aquarius is not national Space Station’s living mod- thirty years. emptiness of deep space, scientists only is it isolated, but very isolated, ule. “The whole idea in going to the might have to battle the fiscal chal- and it’s an extreme environment,” said This summer NASA will commence moon first is so they can get their lenges inside the Washington NASA project manager Bill Todd. “It its latest mission to Aquarius, which feet wet on what it’s like to live on Beltway. also allows the crew to go on a real will have four astronauts testing their another planetary body before going Funding for the National Oceanic mission in a real environment and personal limits while they test new another six months out to Mars, and and Atmospheric Administration un- work with real scientists doing real communication methods and exercise in a way that’s what we’re doing here dersea research arm has been flat for work, just like they would in the space equipment for long-duration space 60-feet underwater,” said Kelly years. station.” travel. Humphries, a NASA spokesman at That budgetary pressure acceler- With about 400 square feet of liv- President Bush recently an- the Johnson Space Center in ated this fiscal year when the agency, known as the National Undersea Re- search Program (NURP), saw its fund- THE HISTORY OF AN UNDERSEA LABORATORY ing drop from $13.5 million to $12 mil- Machine Works in Texas. Begins lion. operations in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Aquarius’s annual NOAA budget Islands. is about $1.3 million, which primarily 1989:Hurricane Hugo damages ‘Aquarius.’ Lab is removed and covers operating and maintenance brought to Wilmington. costs. Researchers, institutions and 1992: Re-christened after an 18- grants cover most of the mission ex- month refurbishment. Deployed in penses. Florida Keys National Marine NURP Director Barbara Moore said Sanctuary off Key Largo. 1996: ‘Aquarius’ mothballed because the agency considered several op- of funding constraints. tions to cover the 2003-2004 fiscal Aquanaut Peggy Whitson 1997: Funding restored; ‘Aquarius’ year shortfall, including cutting fund- works underwater near the refurbished at Harbor Branch ing to Aquarius and Alvin, NOAA’s ‘Aquarius’ laboratory off the Oceanographic Institution in Florida. deep-sea submersible. Florida Keys 1998: Redeployed to marine sanctuary. In the end, NURP was able to 2001: First NASA mission to scrape by without closing any of its From the Caribbean to North Carolina ‘Aquarius’ six regional research centers – includ- to Florida, ‘Aquarius’ has done a lot 2004: After surviving another round ing the one at UNCW, which sup- of traveling for a fixed undersea of funding cuts, seven missions ports undersea research from North laboratory: planned 1986: ‘Aquarius’ built by Victoria Carolina to Texas – or discarding STAFF ART | STEVEN PIPES Aquarius or Alvin. © 2004 Wilmington Star-News 5A STAR-NEWS | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2004

tom time, and with Aquarius we could learn from some of the top scientists spend nine hours a day at the depths in their fields. we needed to be at versus a few hours Having UNCW’s name splashed using a surface vessel,” he said. “It around the world thanks to Aquarius, provided an exceptional opportunity most recently in a National Geo- for us to see what goes on down graphic article, doesn’t hurt either, Mr. there because we were out there so Lanier added. much.” But with an administration that Other scientists have used has made the military and national Aquarius to study fish populations security its fiscal priorities and a defi- and long-term studies on the health cit spiraling out of control, money of coral reefs. for ancillary programs like science The underwater lab also has and the arts is becoming harder to proven a boon for UNCW. come by. “Having the world’s only under- Rep. McIntyre said even though sea laboratory as an extension of your funds are tight, Aquarius is too im- program is great for our researchers portant to let go. and students and good exposure for Calling it a national asset, he said our institution,” said Mark Lanier, as- the underwater lab offers a unique NASA sistant to UNCW Chancellor Rose- platform to learn about part of our NASA scientist Emma Huang, an aquanaut who was aboard the ‘Aquarius’ mary DePaolo. planet that we know very little about. with a research team, watches a school of marine fish on the other side of the The presence of Aquarius also has “It’s not like it’s just a parochial undersea laboratory’s viewing port. allowed UNCW’s Center for Marine project for our small area of the Science to attract world-leading re- coast,” Rep. McIntyre said. “The re- But Ms. Moore said the agency But Dr. Miller said there are advan- searchers. search that’s done there has a national can’t continue to operate as normal tages to longevity. That, in turn, allows its students to and international impact.” on a budget that doesn’t even keep “The fact we’ve been here in up with inflation on the years its not the Florida Keys for so long makes it losing funding. an even more valuable as a research With President Bush only allocat- site, a long-term database that’s un- ing $11 million for NURP in his pro- matched anywhere else in the posed 2005-06 fiscal year budget, world,” he said. which starts Oct 1, that day of reck- While training astronauts might oning could come sooner rather be some of the more exotic missions than later. undertaken at the lab, Aquarius’s more “I think some hard decisions would mundane research has been just have to be made,” Ms. Moore said as fruitful. if Congress can’t secure additional Researchers said the lab is a funding for the program this summer. force multiplier, allowing them Steven Miller, director of UNCW’s to do in a few days what could National Undersea Research take several weeks using a surface Center, said Aquarius couldn’t ship. operate without the federal support. Mark Hay, a marine biologist with “Without that funding, the program the Georgia Institute of Technology, is pretty much dead in the water,” spent 10 days in Aquarius last fall he said from Key Largo. researching how herbivorous fish Officials admit that Aquarius, and other plant-eating critters affect which was built in 1986 but has been seaweed growth on and around coral STAR-NEWS FILE refurbished twice since its launch, reefs. In this image from 2000, Jay Styron, oceanographic field operations manager is getting a bit long in the tooth. “Our project required a lot of bot- for UNCW’s ‘Aquarius,’ communicates with a support boat 60 feet above him. © Wilmington Star-News