Moon Landscapes on Earth
Whether you’re training for a Moon landing or interested in feeling like you’re in space, there are numerous places across the globe just like the Moon and beyond.
In 2013 the European Space Agency (ESA) released a guide entitled The Catalogue of Planetary Analogues. The guide showcases regions and locations with everything from impact craters, tundra to deserts all seen as vital for correct training and preparation for space missions. It also includes notes on various habitats and land formations to act as a cheatsheet for beginning to understand the environments that astronauts may come across in space.
I’ve linked the guide above and I can honestly say it’s one of the most comprehensive scientific documents I’ve laid eyes on.
I’ve picked out a few of these locations below. If it appears that I know more than you’d expect about these locations it was all found by glancing over the ESA guide and Wikipedia.
Dyngjufjöll Mountains, Iceland
The Askja stratovolcano in Iceland composed of reddish soil formed at the end of the Ice Age. The mountains around Dyngjufjöll were used as a training site for the Apollo missions with the volcanic terrain is suitable for practicing manoeuvrability across rocks similar to those found on the surface of the Moon.
Belpasso, Italy
The home of Etna volcano. The continuous volcanic activity of the region is suitable for planning in environments that are constantly changing. No doubt when humans start exploring further afield, Etna will only increase in it’s potential as a training base with the volcanoes on Venus known to behaviour similarly.
Namibia, Africa
The oldest desert in the world (the Nambib) is the perfect place to practice an environment where little life exists. The dunes here are the closest to those seen on Mars. The only respite in this environment is the moisture from fog rolling in from the ocean.
Marble Canyon, Canada
Initially, you wouldn’t believe somewhere so close to human populations (in Calgary and Vancouver) would be the perfect location to train for a Moon landing. However, beneath the water in the lakes that make up Marble Canyon are rock formations similar to fossils present on the Moon and Mars. The weightlessness of training underwater prepares astronauts for collecting scientific samples of extraterrestrial geology.
Antarctic Dry Valleys, Antarctica
You can’t really train for the Moon without looking to visit the most hostile place on Earth first. Apparently Mars used to have its share of similar sub-glacial habitats, which make the Blood Falls in Antarctica analogous to some “relic” Martian sites.
The cold environments are also worthy of testing spacesuits under the extreme temperature variations seen on the Moon.
The images shown above are all from Sentinel 2 and I made sure to triple check the location of each to make sure I wasn’t miles off the exact location of each training site.
Hopefully the above interest offer a different way of looking at the moon landings on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. I knew that they would train as much as possible on Earth but discovering some of the actual training locations helps to understand the lengths that scientists and astronauts went to for the moon landings. When technology wasn’t as impressive as it is now, it was probably more important to prepare in these locations.
Keen to impress me with your knowledge on some of the extreme habitats seen across Earth? The best way to do so is through Twitter @RobACollins
Useful links
The above article contains all my own views, not that of friends, family or my work. All satellite images from Sentinel 2 shown are accessed with respect of the Copernicus Open Access Hub licence.
