/sci/ - Science & Math

The Aquarius has been monitoring the coral reefs, hurricanes and more recently the oil spill. It's currently working on methods of artificially restoring coral health in spite of increasing oceanic acidification. Data collected by aquanauts aboard Aquarius was used to establish the effect of leaked oil on the reefs, which is surprisingly minimal. It's been able to monitor the passage of hurricanes overhead and their effect on ocean fauna. NASA even uses the base to train for missions, as coordinating workers on the sea floor poses most of the same challenges as coordinating the same labor on the lunar or Martian surface. The successor is even planned to be modular, specifically because it will give astronauts hands on practice assembling a modular habitat under low gravity conditions where return to safety is not an option.

Here's a video tour of the interior:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSVYO8dx8LM