(music throughout) As an aquanaut.
That was just just an awesome experience.
Definitely once in a lifetime to be able to go spend nine days,
about 60 feet below the surface in an underwater habitat,
and we would do a full end
to end mission scenario simulating the Moon and Mars.
That's where we really got to put to the test.
What is exploration of these planetary bodies
going to look like?
So when we have these
what we call aquanauts living in this underwater habitat,
we can simulate some of the conditions that the astronauts will experience.
And we're actually able
to have these aquanauts conduct, EVAs or extravehicular activities.
Simply put, spacewalks outside of this habitat.
So really being able to see that process
from multiple different angles I think will be really beneficial
as we start to nail down exactly what that's going to look like for Artemis.
Artemis is taking humans for
the first time to the Moon's South Pole region.
This area of the moon features
some of the coldest temperatures in the solar system.
Artemis Astronauts will look for signs of frozen water
and gather clues about the young solar system.
When the planets and moons were just forming, flash forward
to astronauts exploring the lunar surface with the Artemis program.
You know, they're going to be doing exploration.
They're going to be visiting a site on the moon
that no human being has ever visited before.
And they're going to be taking pictures and describing rocks that they see.
You know, collecting samples, deploying instruments.
And we want to, you know, have them experience all of these things
here on Earth, of course, before they fly to the moon.
NASA has been training astronauts in geology in geoscience
for decades.
These scientific fields help us understand the evolution
of the physical and chemical makeup of planets and moons
from their
deep interiors to their surfaces and atmospheres.
Apollo astronauts had hundreds of hours of training in geology
or the equivalent of a master's degree.
And Artemis astronauts will, too.
NASA's astronaut corps
includes geologists like astronaut Jessica Watkins.
Yes, so my job title is now astronaut, NASA astronaut.
We all come into the astronaut office with, you know,
a whole career in the in the rearview mirror in a lot of senses.
For me, the way that I ended up kind of sitting in
this seat was by keeping it in the back of my mind.
So I became interested in Mars at a pretty young age, actually.
I'm not sure.
Somewhere around fifth grade.
So this is this was in a defining time for my life.
But I remember for some school project, you know, making a little book about Marty
The Martian, that love kind of carried through in college when I found geology,
because I learned that there's this thing called planetary geology.
And the idea of being able to study the surface of another planet
was just the coolest thing to me as somebody who who loved Mars
Geology training on our home planet covers
just one aspect of what it would be like to scientifically explore the moon.
Lower gravity, extreme temperatures and a bulky spacesuit
make operating tools and collecting rocks a great challenge.
NASA's scientists and engineers work hard to design and build custom tools
that will work well in the extreme environment of the Moon's South Polar
region.
Making any sort of hardware that flies in space is a huge team effort.
I help to lead a team of people
who are building moon tools and so specifically the tools
that are going to take samples of the moon and bring them back to Earth
to the scientists, can study them for generations to come.
At Johnson Space Center, we have what's called the rock yard,
which is essentially kind of a, you know, large, you know, open space
where we've imported rocks, basically a large human sized sandbox.
It's great at the rock yard we get astronauts to come out to be test
subjects, but we also get engineers and scientists and operators
to be test subjects as well so that we can fully understand
what it's like to be in that crew perspective.
So understanding, you know what what our priorities are,
what types of rocks we're interested in and why, but also to start
using the tools that we'll be using to collect those samples.
Let's just start with the most simple tool, the geology hammer.
You all know what a hammer looks like,
but in the South Pole, it's going to be really cold there.
And so we need to make sure that we're using a material
that doesn't break at very cold temperatures.
So we create a test plan that includes putting it through environmental testing.
So putting the tools in very hot conditions, in very cold conditions
and making sure they work.
We can't just go to the hardware store and buy a hammer.
We have to go make a special one.
And then we have testing like ergonomic testing to make sure
that it actually works with the astronauts and that it fits their gloved hand
when they're in the spacesuits not to exhausting for them.
There's all of these little different nuances of being in the spacesuit
that are hard to fully appreciate unless you get in there.
As anyone who's worn a spacesuit will tell you, it feels like
wearing a balloon that's constantly pushing down on you.
Spacesuits have to meet many demands.
They must be sturdy enough to keep astronauts
safe in the low gravity and high radiation environment of the Moon.
But they also have to be nimble enough to allow astronauts
to squeeze, poke and pound their tools.
It's tough to describe, honestly.
It's large.
It's, you know, about 300 pounds, I think.
You're kind of operating your own personal spacecraft in a lot of ways.
You know, the intent is for you to be able to manipulate your arms
and legs in a in a way that you would on the ground.
So we have a large pool here at the NBL the Neutral Buoyancy
Laboratory here on site and in the corner we now have a moon area.
So we've imported sand and rocks down there
and we've started to do runs trying to approximate one sixth gravity.
It's kind of a lot of moving pieces, but it's really fun.
It's one of the coolest things we get to do.
And I'll tell you what, some of my most favorite moments at NASA
have been when I see these engineers start to get excited about the science
that we're doing and start to, you know, learn some of the geology terminology,
because that really is what creates an effective team.
And so hearing, you know,
tools engineer out of me start to say, wow, this looks like a basalt
that has lots of vesicles with olivine phenocrysts in it
just make me incredibly excited because it means that,
you know, we're learning to speak each other's languages
(beatboxing) Yeah,
I just like to do weird and unique things.
So I've always found those, you know, those odd hobbies,
like learning to juggle or learning to beatbox or do improv.
I was watching TV and I saw the TV show American
Ninja Warrior, and I was just like, I want to do that.
And so I started to train to be a ninja warrior.
That's how I decided that I should be called the Space Ninja.
And so I would just share my interest of space.
I got selected and got to go out there and compete.
So I think we would limit ourselves
if we only have one vision of what exploration looks like.
Being a part of the NASA team has really showed me what that means
and what exploration really looks like on a daily basis.
But I do enjoy creative writing, short stories, poems
sometimes when I can, you know, find the time.
It's just an enjoyable way for me to explore what I'm thinking and feeling
and really kind of, you know, use the other side of my brain.
Now, whenever I take a step back to I think about what I do.
I mean, it is just it is surreal and it is
it's just it's thrilling and realize that I have a leadership role in this, too,
and I get to influence what we're going to do on the Moon.
For me, I think why it is so important for us as humans to explore
is that exploration kind of forces us
to push ourselves to the limits of our capacities.
I think that that's really important for us to do so that we can,
you know, find those boundaries and push them forward and see
what's out there, see what we're made of, see what the universe is made
of and where we fit into it.
The Moon's South Pole is an ideal location for many reasons.
One reason is that we've collected more information about this
region of the moon than any other from a NASA orbiter
that's been circling the moon for more than a decade.
On the next episode of NASA Explorers Why the South Pole?
What remaining questions do scientists have about the moon and solar system
and how will going to the South Pole Help answer those questions?