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NASA Using Voxer to Simulate Earth-to-Mars Communications During NEEMO 20 Undersea Mission
[July 28, 2015]

NASA Using Voxer to Simulate Earth-to-Mars Communications During NEEMO 20 Undersea Mission


Voxer, developer of the mobile messaging application combining the best of voice, text, photo and video messaging technology, announced today that NASA is using the Voxer application as its primary means of voice communications for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) project 20, which began Monday, July 20 and concludes August 2. NEEMO missions send astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in Aquarius, the world's only undersea research station, to simulate space exploration conditions with field tests of new technologies and systems.

"NEEMO 20 is an incredibly impressive operation with far-reaching benefits and we are very pleased to have been selected to help NASA simulate space travel," said Irv Remedios, president of Voxer. "NEEMO is a milestone project for us, demonstrating our ability to deliver a comprehensive communications application designed for the most demanding conditions and mission-critical uses."

During the mission, the NEEMO crew and two professional habitat technicians live 62 feet (19 meters) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in Florida International University's Aquarius Reef Base undersea research habitat located 6.2 miles (5.4 nautical miles) off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. To simulate communications during a trip to Mars, Voxer has implemented an artificial delay of between five and 10 minutes to each message to replicate the time they would take to travel between space explorers and mission control. Voxer was first demonstrated during NEEMO 18 and then used during NEEMO 19 to create a realistic experience for the NEEMO crew.

Voxer as previously used in support of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program, in which the crew used Voxer exclusively for voice communications with mission control, as well as with friends and family. The project, during which the crew spent eight months (October 15, 2014 to June 13, 2015) in a dome-shaped habitat in a lava quarry at 8,000 feet above sea level on Maua Loa, was led by University of Hawaii at Manoa and funded by NASA.



Voxer works across GPRS, CDMA and Wi-Fi networks and a wide variety of devices including tablets and smartphones running iOS, Android (News - Alert), or Windows operating systems. Unlike live-only radios, all Voxer communications can be simultaneously recorded, so users can play messages again or listen later when convenient. Voxer is also available via an appliance which enables enterprises or government agencies to field a private Voxer communication network.

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About Voxer

Voxer was founded in 2007 with the vision to make worldwide communication easy and more efficient. The privately held San Francisco-based company launched its first walkie-talkie and text-messaging application in 2011. Voxer now offers a high-performance push-to-talk service for enterprises, Voxer Business. The company has raised $30 million in funding from Institutional Venture Partners, Intel (News - Alert) Capital, SV Angel, CrunchFund and other investors. To learn more, please visit www.voxer.com.


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