Follow Us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Our time on our underwater “space mission” was coming to an end, and I felt what I imagine an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) must feel before returning to Earth. On the one hand, you are excited to return to your home and your loved ones, as well as to have fresh food and normal hygiene. On the other hand, you know that you will miss your crew and the incredible experience of being in space. While my SEA STAR crew and I had not left Earth during our mission, we were separated from the surface of our home planet for five days. All we saw was a green alien water world surrounding us. We did this to live and work as astronauts on the ISS. Instead of dealing with the space challenges that astronauts face, we solved sometimes equally difficult problems that divers have to handle when conducting research in seawater. Our “wet ISS” was the Jules Underwater Laboratory, located near Key Largo, Florida, 22 feet (7 meters) underwater. By the end of our mission, we had all officially become aquanauts. An aquanaut is an underwater explorer who remains underwater for more than 24 hours, without returning to the surface, in a state known as saturation. Paul Bakken testing equipment. (Image credit: Dr. Michaela Musilova) In this sense, saturation refers to the physiological condition reached by a person breathing underwater long enough for the body’s tissues to absorb the maximum possible amount of inert gas (such as nitrogen), for a specific depth and pressure. The term aquanaut derives from the Latin word “aqua” (water) and the Greek “nautes” (sailor). There were many things I wasn’t going to miss about being an aquanaut. They included the constant loud noises our life support systems made to keep us alive underwater, as well as plumbing problems in bathrooms and some health problems related to living under pressure. We also had to be very careful when doing our “spacewalks” (dives), due to the poor visibility of the environment around us. You might like it. However, I experienced a sort of “lower vision effect” during this mission. Most astronauts claim to have experienced an “overview effect” after seeing our entire planet from space, which usually makes them value our unique planet even more. I felt something similar when I saw the sun’s rays passing through the water. I couldn’t reach them, but I enjoyed them from afar. My everyday life felt so close, yet so far away. It gave me a sense of longing and more determination to care even more for our homeworld than before. Dr. Michaela Musilova manages the SEA STAR mission schedule. (Image credit: Jenn Pint) I am grateful that we were able to do all the different science projects we planned for our mission. As crew commander, I usually have a lot of work on my plate: managing the crew and supervising their research projects, as had been the case on most of the 40 simulated space missions I previously led. Fortunately, this time my crew was made up of experienced analog divers and astronauts, so the mission went smoothly. The research we chose for this mission was relevant to long-duration space missions. Since we can only send a small number of astronauts to the ISS with a limited number of research activities to perform, underwater stations provide us with a valuable way to conduct analog or simulated space missions. We also do some environmental conservation work using a type of underwater vacuum device to help protect the nature around the Jules Underwater Laboratory. My scientific project focused on studying whether our cognitive abilities and reaction times changed under pressure. This study is part of my collaboration with the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ostrava and the Ostrava Municipal Hospital in the Czech Republic. The entire crew definitely felt that their response times to these tests were slower during the mission than before. The daily SEA STAR crew team meeting. (Image credit: Jenn Pint) We were also interested in seeing how microgreen seeds were affected by pressure changes. Our Health and Safety Officer, Dr. Brandy Nunez, grew some of our kale and super salad mix before beginning our mission, while other seeds began their underwater growing journey. All seeds were transferred to our underwater station using two varied pressure settings (gradual and sudden pressure release during their descent). After harvesting them, we could see that these latter types of seeds did indeed experience some barotrauma (damage caused by sudden increase in air pressure). What to read next CEO Paul Bakken’s work involved managing the internal pressure of logistics transfer containers when they are exposed to significant environmental changes in pressure. The fourth crew member, mission specialist Jenn Pint, worked with Interstellar Performance Labs to develop a taxonomy to analyze environmental and crew interaction factors during simulated space missions. Dr. Michaela Musilova monitors the growth of microgreens under pressure in Jules’ underwater laboratory. (Image credit: Dr. Michaela Musilova) In addition to these projects, we also conduct neutral buoyancy experiments during our underwater spacewalks, as well as tests of environmental sensors developed by high school and university students in Slovakia. The sensors provided important complementary information to the cognitive study about the living conditions of our simulated space habitat. Like astronauts on the ISS, we also dedicate part of our time to outreach and education work. In our case we called Cosmic Region, a simulated space station in Slovakia, and showed the team a tour of our underwater habitat. My crew members kindly entered the water at that time and performed a spacewalk to show what our work was like during the mission. Dr. Michaela Musilova using an underwater vacuum cleaner during a “spacewalk.” (Image credit: Dr. Brandy Nunez) As I put on my “spacesuit” (scuba gear) for the last time, I breathed in the stale sea air once more and then dove down to return to “Earth.” My crew members and I then took a long detour around the lagoon around us to help our bodies adjust to lower pressures. Although we were only 22 feet underwater, there was still a small risk of decompression-related problems that aquanauts can face after living under saturation for some time. The last step was to finally surface. That’s when we all started enjoying breathing fresh air and feeling the sun on our faces again, although the temperature in Florida quickly made us hide again 😉. You can follow Dr. Michaela Musilova on her website and social media: @astro_michaela (Instagram, TikTok and Threads), @Dr. Michaela Musilova (Facebook) and @astro-michaela.bsky.social (Bluesky).
