The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 22 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Landscape at Geoparque Lanzarote in the Canary Islands that is part of the second session of ESA's Pangaea training course for astronauts.
The session in Lanzarote is devoted to field geology in a ‘planetary analogue’, meaning a setting with terrain very similar to that found on Mars. The three martian ‘astronauts’ will be involved in a series of geological traverses, each progressively more complex with specific scientific questions to be addressed. They will first study the traverses using satellite images, and then they will follow the traverses on the ground, communicating by radio with a ‘ground team’ of scientists. Then they will decide, based on that expert advice, on a set of sampling sites, where they will collect representative samples to be returned for further analysis.