Navy Diving Equipment Tested by Astronauts for Space Exploration Missions
Story Number: NNS190722-14Release Date: 7/22/2019 1:53:00 PM
By Katherine Mapp, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division Public Affairs
David Coan, extra vehicular activity lead
for the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) Johnson Space
Center prepares for a dive donning a Kirby
Morgan-37 helmet equipped with the
Divers Augmented Vision Device
Generation 1.0 heads-up display during
the 23rd NASA Extreme Environment
Mission Operations in June 2019 at the
Aquarius Reef Base underwater habitat.
July 18, 2019
KEY LARGO, Fla. (NNS) -- Scientists, engineers and key partners of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) are collaborating by taking NSWC PCD technology, originally designed for diving, from seabed to space.
The Diver Augmented Vision Device (DAVD) team from NSWC PCD and partners recently joined forces with NASA at the Johnson Space Center during NEEMO-23, the 23rd voyage of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations held at the Aquarius Reef Base underwater habitat in Key Largo.
The Aquarius Reef Base, operated by Florida International University, is the only undersea laboratory in the world located 5.4 miles off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, 62 feet below the surface. The Aquarius and its surroundings provide an ideal training and mission analog for space exploration by providing buoyancy similar to walking on the moon, or Mars.
The DAVD is a high-resolution, see-through heads-up display (HUD) embedded directly inside of a Kirby Morgan-37 dive helmet. This unique system provides divers with high-resolution visual displays of everything from sector sonar imagery (real-time topside view of the diver's location and dive site), text messages, diagrams, photographs, and even augmented reality videos.
More:
https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=110284