European astronauts trained for future moon missions on Wednesday in a lunar simulator in Germany.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has negotiated for three spots on future moon missions under the NASA-led Artemis program by 2030, depending on the program's progress.
While the ESA is years away from sending astronauts to the moon, they are practicing at the LUNA facility at the European Astronaut Center near Cologne.
On Wednesday, the opening day of the LUNA facility, astronauts Thomas Pesquet of France and Matthias Maurer of Germany wore spacesuits and moved slowly with their canine robot on what looked like the moon's surface.
The LUNA facility simulated the moon's surface using 900 tons of ground-up volcanic rock mined in the Siebengebirge mountain range, not far from the facility, on a surface a tad bigger than a basketball court.
Movable ceiling-mounted trolleys that follow a suspended astronaut or rover's movements will simulate a low-gravity environment like that of the moon.
In a pre-opening briefing, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst said that the facility will offer "most aspects that we will encounter on the moon."
"It's the surface, it's the lunar dust, the rocks, the lighting," Gerst said. "We will work in spacesuits that limit our movement, limit our view."
The ESA currently relies on NASA, the global leader in space exploration, and others to get its astronauts to space.
At the opening ceremony, ESA Director Josef Aschbacher said that the LUNA facility "marks a significant milestone in Europe's space exploration efforts."
"We need to prepare for the moon because currently we are only flying to low-Earth orbit to the International Space Station," said ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer. "But the next missions will bring us to the moon."
NASA's Artemis program hopes to establish the first long-term presence on the moon and is expected to include the landings of the first woman and the first person of color on the moon.
"With NASA's Artemis campaign, we are exploring the Moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars," NASA says on its website.
NASA's Orion spacecraft will carry the crew to space and, according to the space agency's site, "provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities" on the Artemis missions.
The ESA's LUNA facility opened years later than planned due to delays caused by the pandemic and the discovery of protected lizards, which forced the facility's relocation.
The facility will be jointly operated by ESA and the German Aerospace Agency and used in several ways, such as to test lunar rovers and practice walking on the moon's surface in spacesuits.