a day down into CAVES

Join me in a day down into CAVES. Helmet on, buckle up ... and don't forget your headlamp!

space analogues

Analogue means in some ways comparable. But comparable to what? Human Spaceflight is nowadays confined to Low Earth Orbit, and it will be, for a few more years, to the Solar System. But there is no comparison between LEO, an Asteroid and Mars or the Moon, or even Libration Points in terms of atmosphere, gravity, soil composition, distance from Earth, mission duration, and therefore habitats, communication, equipment, operations.

So, first answer the question: Analogue to WHAT?

And then, it so highly depends on what one wants from the analogue: planetary science? Therefore (geo)logical analogy is required. Or maybe testing of equipment? Therefore environmental analogy is important. You want to test an operational concept? Then you also need some level of situational analogy. Human research? Depending on what you study, you need some combination of environmental, situational, operational analogy. And the level of realism needs to be a known assumption, to be seriously considered in the interpretation of results. Training? You need a REALISTIC combination of environmental, situational, operational analogy. And that's not easy to achieve, especially considering how little experience we have of the target.

ESA CAVES 2012

Totally taken by the preparation for ESA CAVES 2012. Next week will be performing dry runs in Sardinia with the instructors and scientists, and the week after the Training Readiness Review board will check if I've prepared things right. And on September 2nd it'll take off, with a crew of six international astronauts.
I'll write about it on the @ESA_CAVES twitter account. In the meanwhile enjoy the CAVES 2011 video.