{"id":9237,"date":"2016-07-10T06:26:48","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T06:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=9237"},"modified":"2016-07-10T08:15:52","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T08:15:52","slug":"return-to-light-for-underground-astronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/return-to-light-for-underground-astronauts\/","title":{"rendered":"Return to light for underground astronauts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\"Extraterrestrial-looking<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/dt>\n
Extraterrestrial-looking cave<\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

The international team of six astronauts from China, Japan, USA, Spain and Russia returned to daylight after spending six nights underground simulating a mission exploring another planet.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Sardinian caves certainly look extraterrestrial and the course designers recreate a space mission with as much fidelity as possible. From \u2018cavewalks\u2019 to daily planning conferences as held on the International Space Station, as well as food and equipment resupplies and running scientific experiments, the six \u2018cavenauts\u2019 were put through their paces during their subterranean adventure.<\/span><\/p>\n

ESA\u2019s underground training course \u201cCooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills\u201d \u2013 CAVES \u2013 focuses on multicultural approaches to leadership, following orders, teamwork and decision-making so astronauts can improve their skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This year\u2019s astronauts were each assigned a role for the underground expedition: Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide shared commander and campsite duties with NASA\u2019s Ricky Arnold, exchanging command halfway through the mission. China\u2019s Ye Guangfu was the team’s survey and data engineer, while Russian Sergei Korsakov took up photo and video engineering duties. ESA astronaut Pedro Duque was the expedition\u2019s scientist for environmental science, geology and microbiology, while NASA\u2019s Jessica Meir was the biologist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Cavenauts\"<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/dt>\n
Cavenauts<\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

The team explored further than any other CAVES course, mapping their progress and taking samples of the environment and life they found.<\/span><\/p>\n

They tested new techniques for making accurate 3D models of objects and the environment using standard cameras \u2013 a technique that could be used in exploring other planets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mission director Loredana Bessone spent the six days underground with the crew: \u201cIn addition to preparing astronauts for spaceflight, this course teaches us how to move from the Space Station to more autonomous expeditions, where astronauts will be more responsible for safety, planning, and for the maintenance of equipment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been an exceptional team from the very beginning and I believe they are ready to explore the caves of our Solar System.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Loredana concludes:\u00a0\u201cThere were no borders in this team, and the variety of organisational, professional and national cultures enriched the team with a multitude of skills and fresh perspectives.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s astronauts were each assigned a role for the underground expedition: Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide shared commander and campsite duties with NASA\u2019s Ricky Arnold, exchanging command halfway through the mission. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",95,63,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",305,203,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/CAVES_stalagmites_medium.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}