NASA finalises 'most lunar-like' place on Earth to train crew for Artemis II. It was...

NASA found the 'most lunar-like' place on Earth to prepare the crew for the first journey to the moon after more than half a century as part of the Artemis II.

The country chosen for this task was Iceland which has rugged terrain similar to the lunar surface.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen and backup crew members NASA astronaut Andre Douglas and CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons hiked across the country. 

"Apollo astronauts said Iceland was one of the most lunar-like training locations that they went to in their training," said Cindy Evans, Artemis geology training lead at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, in a statement. 

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"It has lunar-like planetary processes—in this case, volcanism. It has the landscape; it looks like the Moon. And it has the scale of features astronauts will both be observing and exploring on the Moon," he added. 

How has Iceland become the 'most lunar-like' place for NASA?

According to NASA, the landscape of Iceland is filled with lava fields, volcanic craters, and barren, rocky terrain which has a resemblance with the lunar surface. 

Special rocks like breccias and basalts, which are found on the lunar surface, are also present in Iceland because of the intense volcanic activity of the country. 

Iceland's geology helps astronauts practice working in terrains similar to those on the moon and get trained in techniques used for identifying, collecting, and documenting rocks and soil samples with the help of specially designed tools.

The astronaut crew also worked on their navigation skills and spent time living and working together like they would in space.

"The tools we used during the Apollo missions haven't changed that much for what we're planning for the Artemis missions," said Trevor Graff, exploration geologist and the hardware and testing lead on the Artemis science team at NASA Johnson, in the statement. 

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"Traditionally, a geologist goes out with just standard tool sets of things like rock hammers and scoops or shovels to sample the world around them, both on the surface and subsurface," he added. 

Humans will go back to the lunar surface for the first time after 1972 as part of Artemis III.

As part of the mission, the astronauts will land near the lunar South Pole and will spend nearly a week conducting scientific research on the lunar surface. 

According to NASA, the mission will launch "no earlier than Sept. 2026."

"There's really transformational science that we can learn by getting boots back on the Moon, getting samples back, and being able to do field geology with trained astronauts on the surface," said Angela Garcia, who is an exploration geologist and an Artemis II science officer at NASA Johnson.

(With inputs from agencies)