CAVES: THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY’S PROJECT FOR TRAINING ASTRONAUTS IN SLOVENIA’S UNDERGROUND WORLD

Abstract

In September 2019, Slovenia’s underground cave systems hosted six astronauts from five space agencies. Under the auspices of the European Space Agency (ESA), they underwent a demanding three-week training completed at a depth of more than 200m, as part of the CAVES project. In the context of the CAVES international project, the ESA has been bringing together astronauts from the American space agency NASA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Russian Space Agency ROSCOSMOS, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA, and the European Space Agency (ESA). After strenuous preparations and learning caving techniques, the six-member international team had to spend five days underground, where they had to survive as well as complete various scientific and research tasks. Due to its isolation from civilization, the constant darkness, high humidity, low temperatures and complex, varied and difficult terrain, the cave environment represents an excellent approximation to circumstances in space or on other planets. The Slovenian Cave Rescue Service also took part in the CAVES project; in addition to providing technical support in the preparation and implementation of the training, the main task of the Slovenian cave rescuers was to be on constant standby at the training site in order to be able to react quickly in case of a cave accident. The cooperation of the Slovenian Cave Rescue Service and the European Space Agency was very successful.