Enlarge / Neat painted mural on one of the pool bulkheads at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab.

Lee Hutchinson

On a recent February afternoon, I strolled up to a fat, brightly painted yellow line and peered down into a clear, seemingly bottomless pool. Like the mythical sirens of the Homeric Age, the water called to me. As if he read my mind, Kurt Otten hurriedly called out to me. Please dont jump in, because this would be the last day on my job."

Theres one very good reason why the pool was built so bigit had to accommodate segments of the International Space Station during assembly. Before astronauts flew to the station aboard the shuttle, crews would spend exhausting runs inside the pool, wearing a combination of weights and flotation devices to simulate the weightlessness of orbit. Then they would practice whatever aspects of station construction there were to do in space.

Looking north: Integrated Truss Structure is at left, and at front right is the S3 Truss component w/ELC4 visible.

Looking northwest: S3 Truss in foreground.

Lee Hutchinson

Looking north: The upper floor control rooms and deck-level diving control stations.

Lee Hutchinson

Walking north.

Lee Hutchinson

Diver gear, laid out and ready for use.

Lee Hutchinson

Expensive tanks! (Or are they minions in disguise?)

Lee Hutchinson

More gear, ready for use.

Lee Hutchinson

Looking west from midway across the deck: In foreground is Node 2/with PMA2 and JEM attached.

Lee Hutchinson

North end of pool looking West: P3 located to the left with commercial area to the right.

Lee Hutchinson

Looking south: Integrated Truss Structure is visible near center. To the right of the truss is HTV and HTV EP6-MP Battery Carrier.

Lee Hutchinson

Just visible from one of the upstairs control room are the rock boxes used during asteroid return mission training.

Lee Hutchinson

Looking southwest and down from the second floor at the Integrated Truss Structure: Extending down and left from the S0 Truss is USLAB and Node 2.

Lee Hutchinson

NASA completed construction of the space station about seven years ago. And while astronauts still conduct periodic spacewalks to repair or perform other minor work on the station, the primary focus of astronauts in space now lies inside the station, on scientific experiments in microgravity and learning about the human health effects of long-duration spaceflight.

NASA still needs the pool for these training runs, but it doesnt need all of the massive pool, nor does it need it all of the time. So even before the space shuttle's retirement in 2011, the space agency and the pools contractor, Raytheon, began experimenting with allowing private companies to use the pool.

Ars recently visited the pool insoutheast Houston, not far from Johnson Space Center, to see how this particular public-private partnership was working out. We came less than a month after the massive facility had celebrated its 20th anniversary. One question loomed foremost in our mind: Could the giant pool diversify enough to survive another 20 years?

NASA conducted the first training exercise for the NBL on January 7, 1997 as astronauts prepared for the second mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Although astronauts feel the weight of their suits in the water and the water acts as a drag on motion, neutral buoyancy offers the best available analog to working in space. Like the real thing, too, it offers astronauts a grueling, six-hour workout. John Grunsfeld, who visited Hubble three times, once told me that his body ached for days after a run in the NBL.

Raytheon began offering commercial access to the pool in 2010, and has since worked with a number of oil and gas companies. Some have tested robotic equipment for subsea activities with offshore rigs, while others have trained rig employees in safe egress from helicopters transporting them to and from offshore locations.

Kurt Otten (left), Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory Operations Manager, Randal Lindner, a senior Raytheon manager, and the story's author (right) in the South High Bay.

Lee Hutchinson

Lindner, with the S0 Truss in background.

Lee Hutchinson

Standing next to the S0 Truss segment for scale.

Lee Hutchinson

Berger experiences the NBL in virtual reality. (It felt deep, man.)

Lee Hutchinson

Helicopter emergency egress trainer sits on the north deck. This is used by one of the commercial partners.

Joint EVA NBL Orion Mockup model sits on the floor of the North High Bay. It is used for EVA evaluations in a weightless environment.

Lee Hutchinson

An Oceaneering ROV also sits in the North High Bay, being worked on by NBL techs.

Kurt Otten turns on the screens in TC-A to give us a peek inside the pool.

Lee Hutchinson

The sealed carrier in which the James Webb Space Telescope will be transported once it's completed.

Lee Hutchinson

The carrier can be filled with inert nitrogen to keep JWST sterile and safe. Just don't poke your head in here.

Lee Hutchinson

I smile every time I see this tug. Go Speed Racer, go!

Lee Hutchinson

In this space north of the NBL, modules undergo refurbishment.

Lee Hutchinson

The wall of the South High Bay is thick with patches and memorabilia. It features a large portrait of astronaut Sonny Carter, in whose honor the facility is named.

Lee Hutchinson

Huge NBL logo on the floor.

Lee Hutchinson

It turns out these companies arent so much interested in the impressive size and depth of the pool, said Randal Lindner, a senior Raytheon manager, but rather its capabilities. The pool is well instrumented, with multiple cameras, underwater communications, dive gear, and several on-site control rooms. The facility has 40 professional divers to support operations.

At present, NASA uses the facility for about three dive runs a week, and the pools commercial end is used about three days. But there remains considerably more capacity for private activity, and NASA has asked Raytheon to do additional marketing to bring in more customers. Every commercial dollar allows the space agency to offset the multimillion-dollar annual expense of the NBL. Johnson Space Center isn't alone in this, of course. Private companies like SpaceX have taken over launch pads at Kennedy Space Center. Movies are now made at NASA's rocket factory in Michoud, Louisiana. And so on.

For this massive pool, the time to find new users is now. Otherwise, it's not clear what will happen to the NBL in a decade or so. As it looks to expand human activity into deep space, NASA has indicatedthat it will end its participation in the space station program in 2024, or likely 2028 at the latest. The space agency plans to build a deep space habitat for testing near the Moon, but that facility will certainly be much smaller than the space station. NASA wont need such a large pool.

Will customers come to usethe pool and its myriad capabilities? So far, Lindner said the NBL has been able to accommodate all the varied requests of those with interest in using the pool. Lights can be turned out to simulate nighttime conditions. The pool can be drained 18 inches to provide modest, one-foot waves. Just dont come for frivolityor think about jumping in during a visit.

We have not had anything yet that weve had to reject, Lindner said. But theres a certain amount of prestige with this facility. Its a NASA facility where serious work gets done. Were not going to have an underwater wedding or anything like that.

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Why is NASA renting out its huge astronaut pool? To keep the lights turned on - Ars Technica