Vulcanic territories ad lave tube are the perfects location to training astronauts for future exploration to the Moon (by 2024) and then on Mars.
Lanzarote offers several realistic Lunar and Martian landscapes and a 6 km-long lava tube created by a 21,000-year-old volcanic eruption; for this reason this Canarian’s island become for ESA (Europea Space Agency) a crucial location where to prepare astronauts to be explorers to other Planets.
The programme, named “Pangaea”(Planetary ANalogue Geological and Astrobiological Exercise for Astronauts), it’s the first step in preparing astronauts directly on field. They learn how to become effective field geologists, geo-microbiologists and they learn to work more operationally directly on field.
During the programme “Pangaea-x”, ESA astronauts, test-drove rovers on and under Lanzarote, flew swarms of drones and the recent lunar EVA (extravehicular activity) scenarios involved astronauts collecting rocks with geological tools derived and evolved from the Apollo Mission using a futuristic Electronic Field Books to communicate with scientists and to be coordinated by a flight director in mission control.