A team of astronauts and planetary scientists is setting foot in the fjords of Lofoten, Norway, taking one step closer to understanding Moon geology.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA’s Jessica Wittner  are the trainees for the latest phase of ESA’s PANGAEA geology campaign. They will be joined on site by Arnaud Prost, member of the ESA Astronaut Reserve, as part of a cooperation agreement between ESA and the French space agency CNES.

Lofoten is one of the few locations in the world that shares geological features with the Moon's bright, heavily cratered regions – the lunar highlands.

The three astronauts have already completed PANGAEA sessions across Europe, focusing on fundamental geological field skills in Italy, impact cratering in Germany and volcanism in Spain.

ESA’s PANGAEA  training course prepares astronauts and space engineers to identify planetary geological features for future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.

The PANGAEA campaign provides the crew with introductory and practical knowledge to find interesting rock samples as well as to assess the most likely places to find traces of life on other planets.

Through PANGAEA, Europe is developing operational concepts for surface missions where astronauts and robots work together, among themselves and with scientists and engineers on Earth, using the best field geology and planetary observation techniques.