In Slovenia’s dramatically beautiful Karst region, six astronauts have been put through their paces for future missions — not in a flashy futuristic space center, but deep underground in the area’s network of cold, dark and muddy caves.
On Wednesday, they emerged blinking into the light after swapping their space suits for caving gear and spending six full days underground in the UNESCO-listed Skocjan cave system.
All in all they completed six weeks of training organized by the European Space Agency’s CAVES program.
However, why were they heading underground?
“Living in a cave is very similar to living in space, mentally. Actually, I thought it was much harder than living in space,” 43-year-old Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi said.
Onishi’s harsh tone is unsurprising given temperatures in the cave fluctuate between 6°C and 10°C, not to mention 100 percent humidity and the fact the participants only had the light of their head lamps to guide them.
“Caves are a fantastic alien world. You actually live in an environment which is terrifyingly difficult, different and risky,” said Loredana Bessone of the program.
This was the sixth time the program had been run, but the first outing in Slovenia.
After two weeks of learning about speleology, or cave exploration, the “cavenauts” were dispatched to explore and map the underground maze, gathering scientific material and relying on teamwork to solve various problems.
The experiments include monitoring life in the caves, such as microscopic organisms, as well as assessing atmospheric conditions.
“The main goal for the astronauts is to work together as a team and achieve a mission in a very complex environment, to prepare better for an analogous situation, which is space,” said Francesco Sauro, the head of the program’s science component.
One of the astronauts, Germany’s Alexander Gerst, told reporters about the feeling of complete isolation from the world outside in the silent darkness.
You feel “deprived of all sensual input, out of your comfort zone,” said the 43-year-old, who has already completed two missions on the International Space Station.
Onishi and Gerst were joined by colleagues from the US, Canada and Russia.
NASA’s Jeanette Epps admitted that when it came time to finally leave, she was “kind of sad,” despite the cold, slippery conditions, which had been made more dangerous by rainy weather.
“But then I looked up and ... it was beautiful,” she said.
“Just the smell alone and the sunlight on your face, I didn’t realize how different I felt being in the cave,” 48-year-old Epps said.
Onishi had slightly prosaic concerns once he was “back on the ground.”
“Honestly speaking I was a little timid because I didn’t know how badly I smelled after six days of life in a cave,” he said.
“So, when I saw people on the ground of course I was happy to see them, but I tried to be far from them,” Onishi said, laughing.
Despite the hygiene concerns, he said the program had been unique in the opportunities for learning non-technical skills needed for space voyages.
Bessone agreed and said astronauts from all over the world are lining up to participate in the program, and that few others can create an experience so valuable in preparing for conditions in space.
“We’re coming back next year!” she said.
For Gerst coming back out into nature after the experience was also valuable on a deeper level.
“It reminds me of what a fantastic planet we have, the same as looking from a space station looking down on this blue planet.”
“You realize that our planet is very special, unique in space,” Gerst said.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS