James Talacek | |
|---|---|
 Talacek inside Aquarius during the NEEMO 14 mission. | |
| Born | 1970 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina Wilmington |
| Occupation(s) | Commercial diver, aquanaut |
James Raymond Talacek is an American professional aquanaut with the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). He serves as Oceanographic Field Operations Manager at Aquarius Reef Base, the world's only undersea research laboratory. [1] [2] [3]
Talacek grew up in Clayton, North Carolina. He earned his first diving certification while attending UNCW. Talacek subsequently worked in construction. In 1993 he was hired as an underwater bridge inspector by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NC DOT) Underwater Unit, gaining experience in underwater construction and surface-supplied diving. While employed by NC DOT, Talacek earned his Commercial Diving Supervisor certification. He also earned a United States Coast Guard Captain's license and Divemaster certification. Talacek began running dive charters on weekends from Carolina Beach. During his last six months working for NC DOT, Talacek served as diving supervisor for a dive team stationed at the Outer Banks. [2]
Talacek serves as Oceanographic Field Operations Manager at Aquarius Reef Base for the National Undersea Research Center (NURC). In this position he serves as diving supervisor, Aquarius lead habitat technician, boat captain and Divemaster. Talacek is a certified trimix diver, emergency medical technician (EMT) and advanced diver medic (DMT-A). [2] [4] During his first ten-day saturation diving mission aboard Aquarius in July 2001, Talacek commented, "It's really special to see things that only a small group of people ever get to see. I now understand why everyone on our crew is so anxious to work these saturation missions, because I too am loving every minute!" [5]
As a habitat technician during Aquarius missions, Talacek's responsibilities include habitat operations and maintenance, including carrying out dives to maintain the exterior of the habitat. He also monitors life support systems, communicates with the crew on shore, and acts as a divemaster for the scientists aboard Aquarius. [6]
Missions aboard Aquarius in which Talacek has participated have included a 2001 mission researching mantis shrimp, [7] a September 2007 coral reef research mission called "If Reefs Could Talk", [8] [9] and a June 2006 mission with the U.S. Navy Specialized Research Diving Detachment (SRDD) during which NURC divers investigated the possibility of using rebreathers during excursions from Aquarius. [10] In August 2009, during the investigation of the death of Aquarius aquanaut Dewey Smith, Talacek took part in an underwater test in which he operated the hydraulic hammer in use near Smith at the time of his fatal accident in the vicinity of an Inspiration closed circuit rebreather (CCR) similar to the one Smith had been using. [11] In July 2012 Talacek served as Lead Habitat Technician for "50 Years of Living Beneath the Sea", an expedition commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Jacques Cousteau's Conshelf I project and co-led by Dr. Sylvia Earle. [12] [13]
Talacek has taken part as a habitat technician in eight of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) missions, a series of NASA-NOAA missions which use Aquarius as an analog environment for space exploration. Talacek served as a habitat technician during the following missions:
In May 2007, Talacek and other NURP/UNCW divers, including fellow Aquarius divers Mark Hulsbeck and Jim Buckley, set up a coral monitoring station pylon offshore from the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory in Discovery Bay, Jamaica for a cooperative program among Caribbean countries called Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC). The station was part of NOAA's Integrated Coral Observing Network (ICON). [1] [30] The station was subsequently destroyed during Hurricane Paloma in November 2008. [31]
Talacek is an enthusiastic skydiver, having made more than 400 jumps as of 2012. [2] He has also made two BASE jumps, [32] although he once commented that "it's hard to find places where it is legal to jump." [4] Talacek also enjoys spearfishing, mudding, boating, riding motorcycles and inline skating. [2] [32] He married his wife, Holly, in 2012. [2]
Steven Weldon Squyres is an American geologist and planetary scientist. He was the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His research area is in planetary sciences, with a focus on large solid bodies in the Solar System such as the terrestrial planets and the moons of the Jovian planets. Squyres was the principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER).
Michael Landon Gernhardt is a NASA astronaut and manager of the Environmental Physiology Laboratory, and principal investigator of the Prebreathe Reduction Program (PRP) at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
The Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located 5.4 mi (8.7 km) off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Florida, United States. It is deployed on the ocean floor 62 ft (19 m) below the surface and next to a deep coral reef named Conch Reef.
Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping. In this context, 'habitat' is generally used in a narrow sense to mean the interior and immediate exterior of the structure and its fixtures, but not its surrounding marine environment. Most early underwater habitats lacked regenerative systems for air, water, food, electricity, and other resources. However, some underwater habitats allow for these resources to be delivered using pipes, or generated within the habitat, rather than manually delivered.
An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as saturation. Usually this is done in an underwater habitat on the seafloor for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface. The term is often restricted to scientists and academics, though there were a group of military aquanauts during the SEALAB program. Commercial divers in similar circumstances are referred to as saturation divers. An aquanaut is distinct from a submariner, in that a submariner is confined to a moving underwater vehicle such as a submarine that holds the water pressure out. Aquanaut derives from the Latin word aqua ("water") plus the Greek nautes ("sailor"), by analogy to the similar construction "astronaut".
NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, is a NASA analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in the Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research station, for up to three weeks at a time in preparation for future space exploration.
Josef F. Schmid is a German-American physician, NASA flight surgeon and a major general in the United States Air Force Reserves. He served as an aquanaut on the joint NASA-NOAA NEEMO 12 underwater exploration mission in May 2007. On 8 October 2021 he became one of the first humans to be Holoported off the planet and into space, visiting the International Space Station by telepresence.
Timothy J. Broderick, F.A.C.S., is Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, where he has served on the faculty since 2003. He also serves as Chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal and Endocrine Surgery and is Director of the Advanced Center for Telemedicine and Surgical Innovation (ACTSI). He has flown on the NASA KC-135 parabolic laboratory and dived in the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) program to develop advanced surgical technologies for long duration space flight.
Dr. Andrew Frank Jorgensen Abercromby is a scientist and biomedical engineer who designs and tests spacesuit systems and exercise countermeasures for future exploration of the Solar System. He is employed by NASA as Lead of the Human Physiology, Performance, Protection & Operations (H-3PO) Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. As an aquanaut, Abercromby served as a member of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 14 crew. Abercromby has more than fifteen years of experience working in the Human Health and Performance (HH&P) and Engineering Directorates at the Johnson Space Center. He is married with two daughters.
Steven Patrick Chappell is an American aerospace engineer. He is a Technical Lead & Research Specialist for Wyle Integrated Science & Engineering at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. He is helping to define and execute the research needed to optimize human performance in next-generation spacesuits and extra-vehicular activity (EVA) systems. Chappell served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 14 crew.
William Laurence Todd is a Project Manager for Exploration Analogs at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. He has also served as a NASA Undersea Research Team Project Lead and Spaceflight Training Simulation Supervisor at NASA JSC. Todd is a veteran Aquanaut of 5 missions. In 2001, he commanded the first NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission, a joint NASA-NOAA program to study human survival in the Aquarius underwater laboratory in preparation for future space exploration.
Marcum "Marc" Reagan is a Station Training Lead in Mission Operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He leads a team of instructors who together are responsible for developing and executing complex simulations for International Space Station (ISS) assembly and operations. Reagan also serves as an ISS "Capcom" from Mission Control, communicating with ISS astronauts in orbit. In May 2002, Reagan served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 2 crew. He subsequently served as Mission Director for multiple NEEMO missions.
Jonathan Robert Dory is a Human Systems Integration Lead at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. He is Branch Chief of NASA's Habitability and Human Factors Branch, part of the Habitability and Environmental Factors Division at NASA/JSC. Dory supports crew safety and productivity on the International Space Station (ISS) Program by planning and assessing the on-orbit interior configuration of ISS, as well as performing anthropometric analysis of crew tasks. He contributes to the integrated operation of the Space Station while using 3D computer graphics and animation software as part of his daily work. In July 2002, Dory served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 3 crew.
Tara Melaine Ruttley is Associate Chief Scientist for Microgravity Research at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. Prior to this, she was Associate Program Scientist for the International Space Station (ISS) at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Until 2007, she was lead hardware engineer for the ISS Health Maintenance System, leading a team of engineers whose job was to provide reliable medical equipment that kept astronauts healthy in orbit. She subsequently served as the lead hardware engineer for the ISS Human Research Facility. She served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 6 crew in July 2004.
Karen Kohanowich is a retired U.S. Naval officer and ocean research and technology program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER). She was NOAA's Acting Director of the National Undersea Research Program (NURP) from 2006 to 2009, and served in various roles at OER, including Acting Deputy and Undersea Technology director, until retiring in 2018. In July 2006, she became an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 10 crew.
Dewey Dewayne Smith was an underwater diver, former United States Navy medic and professional aquanaut. He died during a dive from the Aquarius underwater habitat off Key Largo in May 2009. A subsequent investigation determined that multiple factors combined to cause the accident.
Craig B. Cooper is a professional aquanaut from the United States who served from 1991 to 2010 as Operations Manager for the Aquarius Reef Base underwater habitat. Cooper is known to fellow divers by the nickname "Coop".
Dominic Landucci is an American professional aquanaut with the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). He served as the Network Analyst at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius Reef Base, the world's only undersea research laboratory.
Mark Whitney Hulsbeck is an American professional aquanaut. He serves as an Oceanographic Operations Field Manager and research diver for the Aquarius Reef Base, the world's only undersea research laboratory, operated by Florida International University. Hulsbeck is nicknamed "Otter".
Justin Brown is an American professional aquanaut with the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). He serves as a habitat technician at Aquarius Reef Base, the world's only undersea research laboratory.
