Walking on the Moon

A couple of spacewalkers explore the barren and dry landscape of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to simulate a planetary mission.

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and ESA spacewalk instructor Hervé Stevenin carry NASA replicas of sampling tools used during Apollo missions on the Moon. ESA is assessing if the tools are suitable for future exploration missions.

Pangaea-X is a test campaign that brings together geology, high-tech survey equipment and space exploration. For five days in November 2017, the course mobilised 50 people, four space agencies and 18 organisations in five different locations.