Kneeling before a deep crater, astronaut Alexander Gerst collects a sample of volcanic rock, which he jealously guards in a plastic bag. Even if it looks like, it is not on the moon, but inside Los Volcanes Natural Park on the Spanish island of Lanzarote.
With its blackened lava fields, craters and caves created by magma, the geology of Lanzarote is similar to what one might find on the Moon or Mars, which is why the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have used the island for years as ground training for its astronauts.
“This place has lava formations very, very similar to those found on the Moon,” Alexander Gerst, a 46-year-old German ESA astronaut told AFP, describing Lanzarote as “unique training ground“.
Gerst, who has completed two missions on the International Space Station (ISS), is one of the dozen astronauts who have participated in the Pangea (Pangea in English) training course over the past decade on Lanzarote, one of the islands of the Atlantic archipelago. of the Canary Islands, near the northwest coast of Africa.
Why choose Lanzarote
It is named after the former supercontinent, Pangea seeks to equip astronauts and space engineers with geological skills necessary for future expeditions to other planets.
Participants learn how to identify rock samples, collect them, conduct on-site DNA analyzes of microorganisms, and report their results to mission control.
“Here they can experience what it is like to explore a terrain, something they will have to do on the moon,” says Francesco Sauro, technical director of the course.
Gerst, who has just completed his training in Lanzarote, says the course prepares astronauts to work in remote places and on their own.
“If there is a problem, we have to solve it ourselves,” he says.
Gerst did the Pangea training alongside Stephanie Wilson, one of NASA’s oldest astronauts. Both are possible candidates for the next manned lunar missions of the US space agency.
Named after the Greek goddess Apollo’s twin sister, the program Artemis has been trying to bring astronauts back to the moon from 2025although many experts estimate it may be delayed.
Only twelve astronauts walked the lunar surface, sent to NASA’s six Apollo missions, between 1969 and 1972.
NASA and ESA also regularly use the surface of Lanzarote, studded with piles of solidified lava, to test rovers, remote-controlled vehicles designed to move across the surface of Mars.
Lanzarote’s unique geography was shaped by a six-year volcanic eruption that began in 1730, which spewed lava and ash over large tracts of land.
Considered one of the worst volcanic cataclysms ever recorded, the eruption devastated more than 200 square kilometers of land, the equivalent of a quarter of the island which is now home to 156,000 people.
Although there are other places of volcanic origin, such as Hawaii, suitable for astronaut training, Lanzarote has the advantage of having little vegetation, due to its desert climate.
“You find different types of volcanic rocks in Lanzarote. And they are visible, there are no trees,” says the leader of the Pangea project, Loredana Bessone.
“You can see far as if you were on the moon”point.
The Canary Islands also contribute to space exploration in another way: with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), located on La Palma.
One of the largest telescopes in the world, the GTC can see some of the most distant objects in the Universe.
La Palma was chosen to install the telescope mainly due to its cloudless skies and low light pollution.
AFP
Source: Clarin
