Astronauts swarm to the Spanish island to train because it’s “Like the Moon” : Astronaut Alexander Gerst gathers a piece of volcanic rock while squatting on the rim of a deep crater. He then gently places it inside a white plastic bag.
Astronauts swarm to the Spanish island to train because it’s “Like the Moon”
Even though it appears to be so, Gerst is not on the Moon. On the island of Lanzarote, part of Spain’s Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa, he is in the center of the Los Volcanes Natural Park. The geology of Lanzarote can be eerily similar to that of the Moon and Mars thanks to its blackened lava fields, craters, and volcanic tubes; in fact, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have been sending astronauts to the island for training for years.
German astronaut Gerst, 46, of the ESA told AFP that the lava in this location “is very, very similar to the ones that we find on the Moon.” The island, he claimed, served as “a special training field.” One of the about a dozen astronauts who have participated in the ESA’s Pangaea training course in Lanzarote during the past ten years is Gerst, who has completed two missions on the International Space Station.
Pangaea, which takes its name from the extinct supercontinent, aims to prepare astronauts, space engineers, and geologists for missions to distant worlds. Trainees gain knowledge on how to recognize rock samples, gather them, and perform on-the-spot DNA analysis of microbes and reporting the results to mission management.
“They are placed here in the field to observe an exploration of a they will need to accomplish on the Moon is navigate the terrain, “Francesco remarked Sauro, the course’s technical director. – A six-year eruptive cycle Gerst claimed that the Pangaea training program, which he recently finished, aids. prepare astronauts to operate independently in a distant environment.
If we encounter an issue, we must figure it out on our own, he remarked. Along with Stephanie Wilson, a member of NASA, he finished the Pangaea training. seniority among astronauts. Both could be chosen by NASA for its upcoming crewed Moon missions. NASA’s Artemis program, so named after the goddess who in Greek mythology was Apollo’s twin sister, seeks to send astronauts back to the Moon as early as 2025, though many analysts think the deadline may be pushed back. The only spaceflights to date to land humans on the moon’s surface involved six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972, during which twelve men made moonwalks.
Additionally, NASA and the ESA frequently test Mars Rovers—remote-controlled vehicles intended to traverse on the surface of the Red Planet—on Lanzarote’s terrain of twisted mounds of solidified lava. A volcanic eruption that started in 1730 and lasted six years, pouring ash and lava over wide areas of land, is what gave Lanzarote its distinctive topography.
The eruption, which is regarded as one of the largest volcanic cataclysms in recorded history, destroyed an area of more than 200 square kilometers (77 square miles), or nearly a quarter of the island’s current population of about 156,000. – “Look far away” Lanzarote offers the benefit that it has little flora due to its desert-like climate, unlike other volcanic sites like Hawaii that might also be used for astronaut training. “In Lanzarote, there are many distinct kinds of volcanic rocks. And they are made public. No trees grow there, “explained Loredana Bessone, project manager for Pangaea. She told AFP, “You can see far out, like if you were on the Moon.
Another significant contribution to space exploration is being made by the Canary Islands. One of the biggest optical telescopes in the world is located on the island of La Palma. The Great Canary Telescope, which is perched on a mountain, has the ability to see some of the Universe’s faintest and furthest objects. Because of its clear skies and minimal light pollution, La Palma was chosen as the location for the telescope.
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