Going underground

Spending time underground might not be the most obvious environment to practise spaceflight procedures but Hans Bolender, Head of the European Astronaut training division explains: “There are many similarities to spaceflight such as a lack of day–night cycle, sensory deprivation, minimal hygiene and the necessity to work as a team and solve problems together.”

This year, the CAVES training includes astronauts from all of the International Space Station partners: NASA’s Mike Fincke and Drew Feustel from USA, David Saint-Jacques from the Canadian Space Agency, Roscosmos’ Nikolai Tikhonov from Russia, JAXA’s Soichi Noguchi from Japan and ESA’s Andreas Mogensen from Denmark.

CAVES focuses on human behaviour and aims to help astronauts improve their teamwork and leadership skills. Working in a multicultural environment is also important.

The astronauts spent almost a week getting to know each other and learning the skills required to survive the six days underground.

During their stay in the Sa Grutta caves, they will be presented with tasks and problems designed by the trainers. How they tackle difficulties and work together will help the trainees to assess and improve their capabilities and skills.

Follow the astronauts during their CAVES training on Twitter, Flickr and Youtube and the ESA astronaut blog through the links to the right.