Nate Bender

Nathan "Nate" Bender is an American professional aquanaut with the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He serves as a habitat technician at NOAA's Aquarius Reef Base, the world's only undersea research laboratory.

Bender grew up in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. After high school he served for five years in the United States Marine Corps in such locations as Japan, Okinawa, Thailand and Korea. Bender left the Marines in 2000 and joined Bell Atlantic Communications in the Washington, DC, area. Five years later he transferred to Verizon Communications in Tampa, Florida. Bender was hired by Aquarius in March 2010.

The NEEMO 14 crew. L-R: Steve Chappell, Chris Hadfield, Thomas Marshburn, James Talacek, Andrew Abercromby and Bender.

As a habitat technician during Aquarius missions, Bender'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.

In May 2010, Bender took part as a habitat technician in the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 14 (NEEMO 14) mission, one of a series of NASA-NOAA missions which use Aquarius as an analog environment for space exploration. The NEEMO 14 crew lived and worked underwater aboard Aquarius for fourteen days. Bender provided primary support for the NASA aquanauts during the mission. In a blog entry Bender commented of his fellow NEEMO 14 crew members, "Gentlemen, somewhere out there is a child calling you hero, and changing their dreams to follow in your footsteps." In October 2011, Bender served as a habitat technician during the NEEMO 15 mission, the crew of which lived underwater for seven days. NEEMO 15 ended early on October 26 due to the approach of Hurricane Rina.