Imagine spending an entire week underground, cave diving at times and sleeping in a dry underground chamber that simulates many of the challenges that crews of astronauts encounter during their time in space. Since 2011, international astronauts have taken part in a unique program designed to help prepare them for what they’ll encounter during real missions.
Can Cave Diving Really Help Astronauts Train for Space?
Space flights offer unique challenges, but could it be a stretch to claim that cave diving helps astronauts prepare for their missions? NASA’s astronauts train underwater in preparation for micro-gravity missions. In comparison, training with cave diving as well as in a dry cave environment might seem like a bit of a stretch.
The European Space Agency (ESA) draws several parallels between the subterranean training missions and real space missions. As with space operations, cave diving places astronauts in high stress, low visibility situations with very little room for error. In space, when an astronaut drops a piece of equipment, it floats away into emptiness; if equipment is dropped either while cave diving or during practice sessions in a dry portion of a cave, it may slip down into the deep shadows and inaccessibility of the cave’s cracks and crevices.
Astronauts in space also face isolation – not from one another, but from others who are important in their lives. They also face the lack of a day-night cycle, along with problems such as minimal hygiene and sensory deprivation. As it is absolutely necessary for astronauts to function together as a cohesive team and solve problems together, subterranean training missions test members’ abilities and allow leaders to measure the behavior as well as the cooperative performance of team members who will spend weeks or months together on the International Space Station.
Known as CAVES, which is an acronym for Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising Human Behavior and Performance Skills, this unique program takes place deep beneath the surface of Sardinia, Italy. Participating astronauts come from different cultural backgrounds, and with the help of a small training team, prepare to work together safely and effectively in order to solve problems as a team while exploring uncharted portions of the cave system using a variety of space techniques.
Everything that takes place during the training is meant to simulate the realities of things that take place during a space mission. Procedures, restrictions, communication, and much of the technology used reflect the realities of a real ESA mission. As the team dives, hikes, rappels, and climbs ever deeper into the cave system, moving further away from their base camp in the process, the astronauts encounter extreme difficulties.
In a press release, CAVES exploration instructor Francesco Sauro stated that the program “is an exploration mission, and this year it will be more difficult. It will be interesting to see how they manage the further exploration,” he said. “As they distance themselves from basecamp, it will get more challenging and I am curious to see how far they can go.”