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PANGAEA (Planetary Analogue Geological and Astrobiological Exercise for Astronauts) is an astronaut training course developed by the
European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
(ESA). It provides foundational knowledge and skills primarily in field geology to prepare astronauts for advanced mission-specific training for Moon and Mars missions. PANGAEA also incorporates the development and testing of technologies to support planetary exploration.


Field training locations

During the PANGAEA course, trainees travel to several terrestrial locations that are analogous to some of the geological environments on the Moon and Mars.


Bletterbach Canyon, Italy

Bletterbach Canyon is part of the Italian Dolomites region. Here, PANGAEA trainees learn the basics of field geology, with some focus on terrestrial and Martian sedimentary geological and surface processes. This is aided by the presence of geological features within the canyon, such as
gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate Hydrate, dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...
veins Veins () are blood vessels in the circulatory system of humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are those of the pulmonary and fetal c ...
, sedimentary deposits (e.g., fossilised rivers and seabeds) and volcanic bodies, which are analogous to similar features observed on Mars. The Bletterbach Canyon portion of the PANGAEA course is made possible due to collaboration with the GEOPARC Bletterbach team.


Nördlinger Ries Crater, Germany

Nördlinger Ries Crater is an approximately 15 million years old impact crater located in western
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
, Germany. Here, PANGAEA instructors use the crater to teach trainees about the rocks and minerals created by such impacts (e.g.,
shocked quartz Shocked quartz is a form of quartz that has a microscopic structure that is different from normal quartz. Under intense pressure (but limited temperature), the crystalline structure of quartz is deformed along planes inside the crystal. These pla ...
), and the large-scale structure of such locations. Impact craters are ubiquitous on the Moon and Mars; therefore, it is important that astronauts are familiar with them. The
Apollo 14 Apollo 14 (January 31February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to Moon landing, land on the Moon, and the first to land in the Geology of the Moon#Highlands, lunar highlands. It was the las ...
and 17 astronauts also studied the geology of Nördlinger Ries crater in 1970. The training at Ries Crater is made possible with the help of the
Rieskrater Museum The Rieskrater Museum, sometimes known in English as the Ries Crater Museum, focuses on meteors and their collisions with Earth. The museum is housed in a 16th-century barn in Nördlingen, Germany which was part of the medieval city's center. The ...
.


Lanzarote, Spain

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...
is a small volcanic island off the coast of West
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
, with numerous volcanic edifices,
lava flows Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or unde ...
, and
lava tubes A lava tube, more rarely called a pyroduct, is a 'roofed conduit through which molten lava travels away from its vent'. If lava in the tube drains out, it will leave an empty cave. Lava tubes are common in low-viscosity volcanic systems. La ...
, similar to those seen on the Moon and Mars. Here, PANGAEA trainees study primary igneous minerals, alteration minerals, and practice operational concepts, such as geological traverses and sampling techniques in coordination with remote science teams. The samples collected during several of these geological traverses have real scientific value, and are sent to researchers to help understand more about these environments. The Lanzarote based portion of the PANGAEA course is made possible due to collaboration with the Cabildo of Lanzarote, the Lanzarote and Chinijo Islands UNESCO GEOPARC, and IGEO’s Laboratory of Geosciences.


Lofoten, Norway

Lofoten is an archipelago in northern
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. The region contains rare
anorthosite Anorthosite () is a phaneritic, intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock characterized by its composition: mostly plagioclase feldspar (90–100%), with a minimal mafic component (0–10%). Pyroxene, ilmenite, magnetite, and olivine are the mafic ...
formations, a major constituent of the
lunar highlands The geology of the Moon (sometimes called selenology, although the latter term can refer more generally to "lunar science") is the structure and composition of the Moon, which is quite different from that of Earth. The Moon lacks a true atmosphe ...
. In this location, astronauts have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge on intrusive rocks with a special focus on the evolution of the primary crust and mantle of the Moon. The training session is designed around a series of geological traverses with increasing complexity and crew autonomy. This part of PANGAEA has been developed with the support of the Norwegian Mining Museum in
Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
.


Technology development and testing

Several technologies support PANGAEA's core training focus, and have been evolved into other projects outside the training. An example of this is the Electronic Field Book (EFB), which supports the course’s core training activities whilst being developed for use in future planetary exploration. The EFB is a field support tool that uses a range of portable devices to collect and integrate astronaut’s observations, such as photos and notes, with maps, 3D models, real-time positioning, voice-chat, and data from an array of external sensors, and provides it to the ground team who are then able to interacted with the data to provide remote support. The EFB also integrates a mineral recognition system developed within the PANGAEA team for the automatic interpretation of results from portable spectrometers in real-time using
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...
techniques and bespoke databasesDrozdovskiy, I., Ligeza, G., Jahoda, P., Franke, M., Lennert, P., Vodnik, P., Payler, S.J., Kaliwoda, M., Pozzobon, R., Massironi, M. and Turchi, L., 2020a. The PANGAEA mineralogical database. Data in brief, 31, p.105985. to provide enhanced decision-support. PANGAEA has also acted as a testing ground for technologies developed outside of the core team. In 2023,
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
and ESA collaborated to test th
HULC (Handheld Universal Lunar Camera)
system during the PANGAEA training, the next camera to be taken to the Moon during the
Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...
missions. PANGAEA has also run separate campaigns focused exclusively on technology development.Bessone, L., Sauro, F., Maurer, M. and Piens, M., 2018b. Testing technologies and operational concepts for field geology exploration of the Moon and beyond: the ESA PANGAEA-X campaign. EGUGA, p.4013.Rossi, A.P., Unnithan, V., Torrese, P., Borrmann, D., Nuechter, A., Lauterbach, H., Ortenzi, G., Jaehrig, T., Sohl, F., Pozzobon, R. and Sauro, F., 2018. AGPA: Integrating field Geology and Geophysics for Planetary Analogues. EPSC, pp.EPSC2018-408. PANGAEA-X ran for five days in November 2017 and 2018, during each it mobilised up to 50 people, four space agencies, and 18 organisations. Some of the main categories of technology tested during PANAGAEA-X are listed below: * Robotic teleoperations * Autonomous Drones and Rovers * 3D mapping * Tools (e.g., SPLIT and mobiPV) * Subsurface mapping


PANGAEA participants

PANGAEA has trained astronauts and cosmonauts from ESA, NASA, JAXA, and Roscosmos, including several from the
Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...
Team.


PANGAEA 2016

*
Luca Parmitano Luca Parmitano (born 27 September 1976 in Paternò, Sicily) is an Italian astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA). He was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. Parmitano is also a colonel and test pilot ...
– ESA astronaut *
Matthias Maurer Matthias Josef Maurer (born 18 March 1970) is a German European Space Agency, ESA astronaut and Materials science, materials scientist, who was selected in 2015 to take part in space training. Biography Maurer graduated from in Sankt Wendel, S ...
– ESA astronaut *
Pedro Duque Pedro Francisco Duque Duque, Order of Friendship, OF, Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration", OMSE (born Madrid, 14 March 1963) is a Spanish astronaut and aeronautics engineer who served as Ministry of Science (Spain), minister of Science from ...
– ESA astronaut


PANGAEA 2017

*
Samantha Cristoforetti Samantha Cristoforetti (; born 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Astronaut Corps, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the second of two Women in space, women sent into space by ESA and ...
– ESA astronaut * Hervé Stevenin – ESA EVA instructor *William Carrey – ESA robotics engineer *Shahrzad Hosseini – ESA scientist


PANGAEA 2018

*
Thomas Reiter Thomas Arthur Reiter (born 23 May 1958 in Frankfurt, West Germany) is a retired European astronaut and is a Brigadier General in the German Air Force currently working as ESA Interagency Coordinator and Advisor to the Director General at the E ...
– ESA astronaut * Sergej Kud’-Sverčkov – Roscosmos cosmonaut *Aidan Cowley – ESA science advisor and Spaceship EAC lead


PANGAEA 2021-2022

*
Kathleen Rubins Kathleen Hallisey "Kate" Rubins (born October 14, 1978) is an American microbiologist and NASA astronaut. She became the 60th woman to fly in space when she launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 7 ...
– NASA astronaut *
Andreas Mogensen Andreas Enevold "Andy" Mogensen (born 2 November 1976) is a Danish engineer and ESA astronaut who is best known for being the first Dane to fly in space as part of the European Space Agency's Iriss program. Mogensen has also been involved in a n ...
– ESA astronaut *Robin Eccleston – ESA research fellow


PANGAEA 2022-2023

*
Stephanie Wilson Stephanie Diana Wilson (born September 27, 1966)Laura Woodmansee, ed. ''Women Astronauts.'' (2002). Burlington, Ont.: Apogee Books. . p. 131. is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. She flew to space onboard three Space Shuttle missions a ...
– NASA astronaut *
Alexander Gerst Alexander Gerst (born 3 May 1976 in Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg) is a German European Space Agency astronaut and geophysicist, who was selected in 2009 to take part in space training. He was part of the International Space Station Expeditio ...
– ESA astronaut Lofoten session *
Alexander Gerst Alexander Gerst (born 3 May 1976 in Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg) is a German European Space Agency astronaut and geophysicist, who was selected in 2009 to take part in space training. He was part of the International Space Station Expeditio ...
– ESA astronaut *
Samantha Cristoforetti Samantha Cristoforetti (; born 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Astronaut Corps, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the second of two Women in space, women sent into space by ESA and ...
- ESA astronaut


PANGAEA 2023

* Jessica Wittner - NASA astronaut *
Thomas Pesquet Thomas Gautier Pesquet (; born 27 February 1978) is a French aerospace engineer, aviator, pilot, European Space Agency astronaut, actor, musician, and writer. Pesquet was selected by ESA as a candidate in May 2009, and he successfully completed ...
- ESA astronaut *
Takuya Onishi is a Japanese astronaut selected for the JAXA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2009. He spent four months on board the International Space Station in 2016. In March 2025, he arrived at the ISS as part of Expedition 72/Expedition 73, ...
- JAXA astronaut


PANGAEA 2024

* Rosemary Coogan - ESA astronaut *
Arnaud Prost Arnaud Maurice Michel Flouf Prost (born November 6, 1992) is a French engineer, test pilot, professional diver, and astronaut reservist in the European Astronaut Corps. Early life and education Prost entered École Polytechnique in 2012, after ...
- ESA reserve astronaut *
Norishige Kanai is a Japanese doctor and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA astronaut. He is a lieutenant and Diving Medical Officer in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (Medical Service Division, 1st Service School). He served as a crew member on boar ...
- JAXA astronaut


References

{{reflist European Space Agency programmes