Cavenauts 2016 underground

Astronauts on ESA's 2016 underground training course CAVES pose for a picture in the Sos Jocos cave in Sardinia, Italy. From left: NASA's Ricky Arnold, ESA's Pedro Duque, taikonaut Ye Guangfu, cosmonaut Sergei Vladimirovich, NASA's Jessica Muir and Japan's Aki Hoshide.

Caves offer a dark and alien underground environment with many analogies to space. Deep underground, our senses are deprived of many sounds and natural light. The procedure for moving along a cave wall resembles spacewalking and cave explorers need to stay alert, take critical decisions both as an individual and as a team, just as in space. 

The CAVES – Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising – course focuses on multicultural approaches to leadership, following orders, teamwork and decision-making.