‘Like the Moon’: Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train

Kneeling on the sting of a deep crater, astronaut Alexander Gerst makes use of a chisel to gather a pattern of volcanic rock which he fastidiously places inside a white plastic bag.

Gerst just isn’t on the Moon, even when it appears to be like prefer it. He’s in the course of Los Volcanes Pure Park on the island of Lanzarote in Spain’s Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa.

With its blackened lava fields, craters and volcanic tubes, Lanzarote’s geology may be uncannily just like that of the Moon and Mars—a lot in order that the European House Company (ESA) and NASA have for years been sending astronauts to the island to coach.

“This place has lavas which are very, similar to those that we discover on the Moon,” Gerst, a 46-year-old German astronaut with the ESA, informed AFP.

He stated the island was “a singular coaching floor”.

Gerst, who has accomplished two missions on the Worldwide House Station, is considered one of a couple of dozen astronauts who’ve taken half within the ESA’s Pangaea coaching course in Lanzarote over the previous decade.

Named after the traditional supercontinent, Pangaea seeks to offer astronauts in addition to space engineers and geologists the talents wanted for expeditions to different planets.

Trainees learn to determine rock samples and gather them, do on-the-spot DNA evaluation of microorganisms, and talk their findings again to mission control.

“Right here, they’re put into the sector to expertise the exploration of a terrain, which is one thing they should do on the Moon,” stated Francesco Sauro, the technical director of the course.

Six-year eruption

Gerst stated the Pangaea coaching course, which he has simply accomplished, helps put together astronauts to work in a distant setting on their very own.

“If we run into an issue, we now have to resolve it ourselves,” he stated.

He accomplished the Pangaea coaching together with Stephanie Wilson, considered one of NASA’s most senior astronauts. Each are potential candidates for NASA’s subsequent crewed Moon missions.

Named for the goddess who was Apollo’s twin sister in historical Greek mythology, NASA’s Artemis program goals to return astronauts to the Moon’s floor as early as 2025, although many consultants imagine that time-frame would possibly slip.

Twelve astronauts walked on the Moon throughout six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, the one spaceflights but to put people on the lunar surface.

NASA and the ESA additionally often use Lanzarote’s panorama of twisted mounds of solidified lava to check Mars Rovers—distant managed autos designed to journey on the floor of the Crimson Planet.

Lanzarote’s distinctive geography stems from a volcanic eruption that started in 1730 and lasted six years, spewing ash and lava over giant swathes of land.

Thought-about one of many best volcanic cataclysms in recorded historical past, the eruption devastated over 200 sq. kilometers (77 sq. miles) of terrain—a couple of quarter of the island which is presently dwelling to round 156,000 individuals.

‘See far-off’

Whereas there are different volcanic areas reminiscent of Hawaii that may be used for astronaut coaching, Lanzarote has the benefit that it has little vegetation resulting from its desert-like local weather.

“You will have a variety of several types of volcanic rocks in Lanzarote. And they’re uncovered. You do not have bushes,” stated Pangaea venture chief Loredana Bessone.

“You’ll be able to see far-off, as in case you have been on the Moon,” she informed AFP.

The Canary Islands is making an enormous contribution to space exploration in one other approach too. The island of La Palma is dwelling to one of many world’s largest optical telescopes.

Situated on a peak, the Nice Canary Telescope is ready to spot a few of the faintest, most distant objects within the Universe.

La Palma was chosen as the location for the telescope due to its cloud-free skies and comparatively low gentle air pollution.

© 2022 AFP