ESA reports that its PANGAEA astronaut geology programme marked its 10th anniversary with a three-week course completed by ESA astronaut Pablo Álvarez Fernández, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and Kimiya Yui of the Japanese space agency. According to ESA, the training moved from classroom theory to fieldwork at the Bletterbach canyon in Italy, the Ries crater in Germany and the volcanic landscapes of Lanzarote in Spain.

The edition was dedicated to Riccardo Pozzobon, a PANGAEA instructor who died a year earlier during a scientific expedition in Alaska, ESA said. Project lead Loredana Bessone described the course as covering a full working cycle, from individual skills to crew operations, with astronauts planning fieldwork with scientists and reviewing results afterwards.

ESA says PANGAEA, running since 2016, forms part of training prerequisites for Artemis Moon missions and has trained 19 astronauts from four space agencies. Álvarez Fernández said the crew learned to act as scientists' eyes and hands in space, while instructor Katherine Joy described lunar samples as critical pieces of the Solar System's history.