ESA PANGAEA

PANGAEA (Planetary Analogue Geological and Astrobiological Exercise for Astronauts) is an astronaut training course developed by the European Space Agency (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.[1][2][3][4]

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.[5][6]

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 veins, sedimentary deposits (e.g., fossilised rivers and seabeds) and volcanic bodies, which are analogous to similar features observed on Mars.[7] 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, Germany. Here, PANGAEA instructors use the crater to teach trainees about the rocks and minerals created by such impacts (e.g., shocked quartz), 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 and 17 astronauts also studied the geology of Nördlinger Ries crater in 1970.[8] The training at Ries Crater is made possible with the help of the Rieskrater Museum.

Lanzarote, Spain

Lanzarote is a small volcanic island off the coast of West Africa, with numerous volcanic edifices, lava flows, and lava tubes, 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.[9][10] 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. The region contains rare anorthosite formations, a major constituent of the lunar highlands. 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.

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.[11] 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 techniques[12] and bespoke databases[13] to provide enhanced decision-support.

PANGAEA has also acted as a testing ground for technologies developed outside of the core team. In 2023, NASA and ESA collaborated to test the HULC (Handheld Universal Lunar Camera) system during the PANGAEA training, the next camera to be taken to the Moon during the Artemis missions.[14][15][16] PANGAEA has also run separate campaigns focused exclusively on technology development.[17][18] 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:[13][18][19][20][21][22]

• 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 Team.[23]

PANGAEA 2016

• Luca Parmitano – ESA astronaut
• Matthias Maurer – ESA astronaut
• Pedro Duque – ESA astronaut

PANGAEA 2017

• Samantha Cristoforetti – ESA astronaut
• Hervé Stevenin – ESA EVA instructor
• William Carrey – ESA robotics engineer
• Shahrzad Hosseini – ESA scientist

PANGAEA 2018

• Thomas Reiter – ESA astronaut
• Sergej Kud’-Sverčkov – Roscosmos cosmonaut
• Aidan Cowley – ESA science advisor and Spaceship EAC lead

PANGAEA 2021-2022

• Kathleen Rubins – NASA astronaut
• Andreas Mogensen – ESA astronaut
• Robin Eccleston – ESA research fellow

PANGAEA 2022-2023

• Stephanie Wilson – NASA astronaut
• Alexander Gerst – ESA astronaut

Lofoten session[24]

• Alexander Gerst – ESA astronaut
• Samantha Cristoforetti - ESA astronaut

PANGAEA 2023

• Jessica Wittner - NASA astronaut
• Thomas Pesquet - ESA astronaut
• Takuya Onishi - JAXA astronaut

PANGAEA 2024

• Rosemary Coogan - ESA astronaut
• Arnaud Prost - ESA reserve astronaut
• Norishige Kanai - JAXA astronaut

References

1. Francesco Sauro, Samuel J. Payler, Matteo Massironi, Riccardo Pozzobon, Harald Hiesinger, Nicolas Mangold, Charles S. Cockell, Jesus Martínez Frias, Kåre Kullerud, Leonardo Turchi, Igor Drozdovskiy, Loredana Bessone, Training astronauts for scientific exploration on planetary surfaces: The ESA PANGAEA programme, Acta Astronautica, Volume 204, 2023, Pages 222-238, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.12.034.
2. "What is Pangaea?". www.esa.int.
3. Williams, Matt (September 14, 2016). "Get That Geologist A Flight Suit!".
4. Agency, European Space. "Training astronauts to be scientists on the moon". phys.org.
5. https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/CAVES_and_Pangaea/What_is_CAVES, What is CAVES
6. Sauro, F., Massironi, M., Pozzobon, R., Hiesinger, H., Mangold, N., Frias, J.M., Cockell, C. and Bessone, L., 2018b. Training astronauts for field geology: The ESA PANGAEA Training and PANGAEA-extension testing analogue. LPI, (2083), p.1120.
7. Buz, J., Ehlmann, B.L., Pan, L. and Grotzinger, J.P., 2017. Mineralogy and stratigraphy of the Gale crater rim, wall, and floor units. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 122(5), pp.1090-1118.
8. Pösges, G., 2005. The Ries Crater Museum in Nördlinger, Bavaria, Germany. Meteoritics & Planetary Science Archives, 40(9-10), pp.1555-1557.
9. Sauro, F., Massironi, M., Pozzobon, R., Hiesinger, H., Mangold, N., Cockell C.S., Frias, J.M., Payler, S.J. and Bessone, L., 2020a. Geological and astrobiological training to prepare astronauts for planetary surface exploration. LPSC 2020 (1963).
10. Miller, A.Z., Gonzalez-Pimentel, J.L., Maurer, M., Stahl, S., Castro-Wallace, S., Bessone, L., Martinez-Frias, J. and Sauro, F., 2020. Geomicrobiological Field Research in a Subsurface Analogue Environment for Future Planetary Caves Missions. 3rd International Planetary Caves Conference LPICo, 2197, p.1052.
11. Turchi, L., Payler, S.J., Sauro, F., Pozzobon, R., Massironi, M. and Bessone, L., 2021. The Electronic FieldBook: A system for supporting distributed field science operations during astronaut training and human planetary exploration. Planetary and Space Science, 197, p.105164.
12. Jahoda, P., Drozdovskiy, I., Payler, S.J., Turchi, L., Bessone, L. and Sauro, F., 2021. Machine learning for recognizing minerals from multispectral data. Analyst, 146(1), pp.184-195.
13. Drozdovskiy, 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.
14. Samantha Mathewson (2023-10-26). "Astronauts test moon camera design for future Artemis missions". Space.com. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
15. Chacko, Amal Jos. "NASA and ESA combine to develop the best camera for its Artemis mission". Interesting Engineering. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
16. "Next generation Moon camera tested in Europe". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. Torrese, P., Rossi, A.P., Unnithan, V., Borrmann, D., Lauterbach, H., Luzzi, E., Pozzobon, R., Sauro, F., Bessone, L. and Nuechter, A., 2019, January. Imaging the subsurface of planetary volcanic analogues using ambient seismic noise data at the Tinguatón Volcano (Lanzarote, Canary Islands). In Geophysical Research Abstracts (Vol. 21).
20. Luzzi, E., Massironi, M., Pozzobon, R., Payler, S., Carey, W., Sauro, F., Bessone, L., Wormnes, K., Krueger, T. and Rossi, A.P., 2020. Preparing for telerobotic geological exploration: Science Support for ESA’s Analog-1 project.
21. Torrese, P., Rossi, A.P., Unnithan, V., Pozzobon, R., Borrmann, D., Lauterbach, H., Luzzi, E. and Sauro, F., 2020. HVSR passive seismic stratigraphy for the investigation of planetary volcanic analogues. Icarus, 351, p.113970.
22. https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/CAVES_and_Pangaea/Overview2, CAVES and PANGAEA overview
23. Potter, Sean (December 9, 2020). "NASA Names Artemis Team of Astronauts Eligible for Early Moon Missions". NASA.
24. "Train me to the Moon and back". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2023-07-21.