Kneeling on the edge of a deep crater, Alexander Gerst takes a sample of volcanic rock with a chisel and carefully places it in a plastic bag. “You feel like you’re on the surface of the moon,” he says.
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This 46-year-old German astronaut, a member of the European Space Agency (ESA), is actually on Earth. In this case in Los Volcanes Natural Park on Lanzarote, one of the islands of the Spanish Canary Islands archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa.
With its blackened lava fields, craters, and volcanic flows, Lanzarote’s geology bears an uncanny resemblance to that of the Moon and Mars, so much so that ESA and NASA have been sending astronauts to this island to form for years.
“This place has very, very similar types of lava to those on the moon,” says AFP Alexander Gerst, who sees the Spanish island as a “unique training ground”.
Gerst, who has carried out two missions on the International Space Station (ISS), is one of a dozen astronauts to have taken part in the Pangea training course, which ESA has been offering for ten years in Lanzarote.
This program, named after Pangea, the supercontinent that preceded the separation of modern-day continents, aims to equip astronauts, space engineers and geologists with the skills needed to conduct expeditions to other planets.
Trainees learn to identify rock samples, collect them, perform DNA analysis of microorganisms on site, and report their results to the Mission Control Center.
Full size exercise
“Here they are able to get used to exploring the terrain, which is what they have to do on the moon,” explains the technical director of the training, Italian Francesco Sauro.
A life-size exercise considered essential to prepare astronauts to work alone in a remote environment. “If we have a problem, we have to solve it ourselves,” Alexander Gerst told the AFP news agency.
This geophysics specialist completed Pangea training with Stephanie Wilson, one of NASA’s most experienced astronauts. Both are possible candidates for NASA’s next manned lunar missions.
Dubbed Artemis, this ambitious project aims to put astronauts back on the moon in 2025 for the first time since 1972. However, some experts believe that deadline is unrealistic given NASA’s budget constraints.
Between 1969 and 1972, a total of 12 astronauts walked on the moon on six consecutive Apollo missions. Returning to the satellite from Earth is considered a must before a possible trip to Mars.
“See very far”
For ESA and NASA, Lanzarote’s landscape of twisting lava hills also offers the opportunity to test out ‘Mars Rovers’, those remote-controlled vehicles designed to navigate the red planet’s surface.
Lanzarote’s unique geography stems from a volcanic eruption that began in 1730 and lasted six years. Considered one of the greatest volcanic disasters in history, it devastated more than 200 square kilometers of land, or about a quarter of the island, which is now home to 156,000 people.
Although there are other volcanic regions like Hawaii that could be used for training missions, Lanzarote has the advantage of having little vegetation due to its desert climate.
“In Lanzarote there are many types of volcanic rock. And they are bare, there are no trees,” Loredana Bessone, the Italian manager of the Pangea project, told AFP. “You can see very far, like you’re on the moon,” she says.
The Canary Islands also contribute to space exploration in another way: they are home to one of the largest optical telescopes in the world, the Great Canary Telescope (GTC).
Perched on a peak on the island of La Palma, chosen for its clear skies and relatively low light pollution, this giant telescope is capable of spotting some of the smallest and most distant objects in the universe.