CAVES, an acronym for Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills, is a European Space Agencyastronaut training course in which international astronauts train in a space-analogue cave environment. The course is designed at the European Astronaut Center to prepare astronauts for safe and efficient long duration spaceflight operations by means of a realistic scientific and exploration mission within a multicultural, ISS-representative team. Each training implementation last for approximately two weeks. In the first week, the so-called "cavenauts" are provided with the necessary scientific knowledge and technical skills to work effectively and safely in the underground environment and visit some simple caves to get acquainted with the condition they will find during their expedition. Afterwards, they spend six uninterrupted days exploring a complex cave system. The main purpose of the mission is to foster their communication, decision-making, problem-solving, leadership and team dynamics capabilities by means of team processes and a real crew mission performed in a space-like environment.
Location
CAVES takes place in several caves in the Italian island of Sardinia, part of a Karst System which lie within the Supramonte region of the Gennargentu National Park. Rocks most commonly found in the area are limestone and dolomite.
Objectives
The CAVES training uphold the following training objectives for participants:
Working together effectively in a challenging environment,
The cave environment is an exceptional space analogue, as it allows to recreate, on Earth, most of the stress elements and specific characteristics encountered in long duration spaceflight. Such peculiar elements include:
Unknown / unfamiliar environment – The crew knows about the cave only what previous expeditions have found and documented
Permanent darkness / need for artificial illumination
Lack of time parameters – This is a direct consequence of the condition of permanent darkness in the cave
Alteration of circadian rhythm and sleep disturbance – The lack of time references and limited facilities affect sleep quality and cycles length
Sensory alteration / deprivation – Not only caves are lightless, they also provide almost no auditory or olfactory stimuli
Limited privacy – Small, confined spaces do not offer much room for privacy or to keep spaces between team members
Social and cultural aspects / crew size – The team includes with astronauts from ESA, NASA, ROSCOSMOS, CSA, JAXA and CNSA, so the team dynamics that emerge during the mission are similar to those expected on an international cooperative space mission
Limited resources / hygiene – The transportation logistics inside the cave is extremely complex, only limited supplies can be carried inside
Isolation / Limited communication with outside world – The crew can only rely on a telephone line up to just beyond the basecamp or radio devices working only in specific locations
Large level of autonomy – This is a direct consequence of the isolation condition, the crew need to operate with minimal inputs from outside
Real physical danger – Even implementing all reasonable safety measures, caves still present risks of falling, slipping, rocks tumbling down, being blocked by landslides and floodings, and participants need to pay constant attention to these aspects
Limited mission abort / rescue capabilities – Given the complexity of the environment, both evacuation and rescue operations require several hours or even days to plan
Another analogue aspect concerns astronauts progression, i.e. how they move inside the cave. The employed speleological techniques involve safety principles similar to that of EVA, such as the need to be attached to a safe surface – the cave wall in CAVES, the ISS or the vehicle in space. Last, the crew mission performed during the exploration has several elements in common with the ISS operations, including a time-lined sequence of activities, daily planning calls to the ground support team, standardized procedures and data collection forms.
Crew mission
In the same way astronauts in space spend a consistent part of their time doing science, cavenauts are tasked to perform a real crew mission comprising several different experiments and activities while exploring the cave. Conducting scientific and technological research is the secondary objectives of the CAVES course, in addition to team training. A third one consists in exploring and documenting previously unknown areas of the cave.
One of the most remarkable scientific results is the discovery of a previously unknown species of crustaceans of the genus Alpioniscus living in the cave. All other results are available on the ESA , divided by year: , , , ,
Participants
Different roles and responsibilities are assigned to the participants for the mission, according to their background, experience and interests. Possible roles, in line with the mission programme, include: mission commander, camp site manager, biologist, scientist, data engineer, photo engineer and survey engineer. All participants are astronauts – either veteran or rookies – unless otherwise mentioned.
