Once or twice a year the Center conducts short training missions to give staff the time to train and become certified on the many life support systems required to operate Aquarius. During these missions, hands-on training is provided in a setting that does not have the distractions of a typical science mission. While the Center makes extensive use of manuals, there is only so much that can be learned before real world experience is required. We run training missions as full saturations, but they are shorter duration.
Full decompression is required and is an important part of the training exercise.