Training for the Moon: Inside the DLR/ESA LUNA Facility
How Do You Actually Recreate the Moon?
1972 was the last time a human was on the moon. There are plans to return soon. To ensure that astronauts and lunar robots are optimally prepared to do so, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have jointly built the LUNA research facility. It is a kind of mini earth satellite, a training ground as “true to life” as possible.
At the heart of the showcase project in Cologne is a 700 square-meter simulated moon surface, something that not even NASA has in this form. Sand, stones, and rocks are modeled on the moon’s geology, while a light simulator creates solar conditions similar to those found on Earth’s natural satellite, which is about 400,000 kilometers away. The position of the sun and the light conditions therefore change only minimally over the course of the training units - a day on the moon lasts about four weeks. The lack of an atmosphere is also taken into account. Since sunlight is not scattered and strikes the Earth’s companion at a very flat angle, it casts long shadows—and they are extremely dark. If an astronaut, say, puts a tool down on the moon, it is very hard to find it again. The tasks and motion sequences involved in these areas therefore require specific practice.
The budding lunar explorers step onto the surface of the Rhineland’s moon model wearing astronaut suits that can also be secured to the ceiling using a sophisticated cable system. This is intended to realistically simulate the lower gravity on the moon, which is only one sixth that of Earth. However, the cable equipment is still a prototype; the series system is expected to be installed in 2026. However, the biggest challenge facing lunar travelers might be the sand on the surface: Very fine and just as sticky as flour, it is highly abrasive and downright destructive. Its destructive power is due to the fact that it can settle in almost any crack and damage technical instruments.
A Lunar Surface in Rhineland: Straight from the coffee machine in ESA’s office to the moon—in the LUNA training facility, astronauts can simulate lunar living and working
The developers have collected sand and rock all over the world for the training facility to be able to reproduce the properties of the moon as precisely as possible. The sand for the bright zones of the moon comes from Norway and Greenland, while the dark, volcanic sand comes from the local region and the volcanic rocks come from Mount Etna on Sicily. The rock that represents the impact craters has had the shortest journey as it comes from the Nördlinger Ries, an impact crater in the depression between the uplands of the Swabian and Franconian Jura. A meteorite struck there about 14.6 million years ago.
LUNA is also an ideal terrain for lunar rovers, which are drivable robots. In the simulated lunar landscape, prototypes can learn tasks such as how to use camera images to decide which path they should take and how they should move. Black, shadowy hollows should be avoided at all costs.
In order to prepare astronauts for the upcoming moon landing as realistically as possible, an additional research module can be connected to the training facility. This means that a lunar operation will be simulated for several weeks without the future lunar researchers glimpsing the Cologne sun.
Info
Text first published in the Porsche Engineering Magazine, issue 1/2025.
Text: Ralf Bielefeldt
Illustration: Julien Pacaud
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