ESA’s PANGAEA  training course prepares astronauts and space engineers to identify planetary geological features for future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.

The PANGAEA campaign – named after the ancient supercontinent – provides the crew with introductory and practical knowledge to find interesting rock samples as well as to assess the most likely places to find traces of life on other planets. Leading European planetary geologists share their insights into the geology of the Solar System.

Course participants of the sixth edition in 2023 are ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronaut candidate Jessica Wittner and Takuya Onishi from the Japanese space agency. The astronauts used the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) to document field exploration in Lanzarote in September 2023.

The theory part is followed by field trips to the Italian Dolomites, the Ries crater in Germany and the volcanic landscapes of Lanzarote in Spain.

Pangaea is the first step in preparing European astronauts to become planetary explorers on missions to other planets allowing them to communicate with science advisors on Earth effectively.

Through Pangaea, Europe is developing operational concepts for surface missions where astronauts and robots work together, among themselves and with scientists and engineers on Earth, using the best field geology and planetary observation techniques.