NASA Uses iPads To Train For Asteroid Exploration Astronaut
visitors to an undersea training habitat use iPads to simulate
time-delayed communications and emergency training for planned
2025 asteroid mission. NASA put men on the moon and successfully
addressed near-disasters such as the explosion aboard the Apollo
13 command module with vastly less computing power than you can
carry in your pocket these days. The next time astronauts visit
a virgin world, they might carry iPads, as did those training in
an underwater habitat this summer for project NASA Extreme
Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO). The exercise took place
at the Aquarius Reef Base undersea research habitat off the
coast of Key Largo, 63 feet below the surface, which provides a
rough analog for the harsh environment and zero gravity
environment of a space mission. A big part of June's NEEMO 16
mission was practicing collaboration and just-in-time training
techniques for a deep-space mission, where the speed of light is
a significant obstacle