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Tag: Cave

  • Pangaea – geology training for space exploration

    Pangaea – geology training for space exploration

    ESA’s Pangaea training course prepares astronauts and space engineers to identify planetary geological features during future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.

    The Pangaea campaign – named after the ancient supercontinent – provides the crew with introductory and practical knowledge to find interesting rock samples and assess the most likely places to find traces of life on other planets. Leading European planetary geologists share their insights into the geology of the Solar System.

    Theoretical work is followed by field trips to the Ries impact crater in Germany, the sedimentary environment of Geopark Bletterbach in the Italian Dolomites and the volcanic landscapes of the Geopark of Lanzarote, Spain.

    Pangaea is the first step in preparing European astronauts to become planetary explorers on missions to other planets, allowing them to effectively communicate with science advisors on Earth.

    Through Pangaea, Europe is also developing operational concepts for surface missions where astronauts and robots work together, among themselves and with scientists and engineers on Earth, using the best field geology and planetary observation techniques.

    More about Pangaea: http://bit.ly/ESACaves

    Pangaea blog: http://bit.ly/PangaeaBlog

    Credits: Film director, video shooting and editing: Sirio Sechi

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  • Pangaea 2016: Taking astronauts to other planets – on Earth

    Pangaea 2016: Taking astronauts to other planets – on Earth

    ESA is now training astronauts in identifying planetary geological features for future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids. This Pangaea course – named after the ancient supercontinent – will help astronauts to find interesting rock samples as well as to assess the most likely places to find traces of life on other planets.

    This video was made during the second part of the Pangaea course held in Lanzarote, one of the Spanish Canary Islands in 2016 with ESA astronauts Luca Parmitano, Pedro Duque and Matthias Maurer and features interviews with the instructors and astronauts.

    The students were tasked with interpreting geological features to understand the history of how the island formed. The goal is to help astronauts choose the best places to explore and collect rock samples.

    This session put into practice a week’s training in Bressanone, Italy, where they learned about Earth and planetary geological processes as well as how to recognise rocks and meteorites.

    The trio went on progressively difficult day trips, ending with a free exploration of the countryside searching for interesting samples while keeping in contact via radio with scientists at ‘mission control’.

    Lanzarote was chosen for this course because of its geological similarity with Mars, such as a volcanic origin, mild sedimentary processes owing to a dry climate, hardly any vegetation and a well-preserved landscape.

    More about the Pangeae course:
    http://blogs.esa.int/caves/