Two Canadian astronauts are on a geology expedition in Labrador right now, to better understand how to operate in remote environments such as in space.
Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronauts Jeremy Hansen and Jenni Sidey-Gibbons are on a team led by Gordon Osinski, a crater expert at Western University. The expedition has special relevance given Canada’s recent activities in space exploration.
Oz, as the community calls Osinski, has been named as the science lead for a mini-lunar rover funded by the CSA, which will be manufactured by Canadensys. He also will be the only Canadian on a NASA-led geology team that will be supporting the first moon landing crew in half a century, when they touch down as a part of the Artemis 3 mission later in the decade. (Besides this, Oz commonly does familiarization geology training now for new NASA astronaut classes.)
Hansen has a direct link to the Artemis program as well. In April, he was named as the first Canadian that will leave low Earth orbit. He and a team of three NASA astronauts will circle the moon no earlier than 2024, on a mission known as Artemis 2. In fact, his NASA crewmate Christina Koch is also on the new geology expedition with Oz, along with NASA astronaut Raja Chari.
Hansen’s mission seat, and the science that Canada will contribute to the Artemis program, comes courtesy of CSA funding of a new robotic arm in deep space. That robotic arm, called Canadarm3, will service the planned NASA Gateway space station that is planned for service later in the 2020s as well.
To get ready for these big moon moves, teams on the ground and in space all need to prepare for working in incredibly remote conditions. These geology trips, led by Oz, have been one of the CSA’s modes of training for astronauts for more than a decade now.
Hansen himself is a veteran of numerous expeditions, even recently being credited in the acknowledgements of a peer-reviewed paper in which his team found a rare type of crater in Saskatchewan during another expedition with Oz. For Sidey-Gibbons, this will be her first expedition.
The astronauts were identified as prime and backup for this particular expedition. What happened, however, was the CSA and Western determined there was enough room available for both of them given the size of the plane and the amount of food and other resources it could carry. That is why for the first time, two Canadian astronauts are on such a geology expedition together. (The other active CSA astronauts, David Saint-Jacques and Josh Kutryk, have also been on expeditions led by Oz in past years.)
The site – Kamestastin or Mistastin Crater – is situated in Labrador and contains a lake, known as Mistastin Lake, that is roughly circular. The crater has several features that make it advantageous for geology training, especially with regards to learning about craters and other planets and the moon. SpaceQ spoke with CSA’s Edward Tabarah, head of the Canadian astronaut corps, To learn more about the crater’s unique geology – as well as the activities that will take place there with the team.
The crater is rich in anorthosite, An igneous rock that is abundant on the moon, according to Tabarah. Also making it advantageous for an expedition is the fact that this rock is both well-preserved and exposed, allowing for the geology team to examine the features up close and to learn more about his history.
“This is one of only two craters in the world with any substantial amount on Earth per se, in the target rocks,” Tabarah said, quoting from a brief about the crater region. “While relatively uncommon on Earth, anorthosite makes up the bulk of the lunar highlands.”
Also making this site notable is the presence of a central “uplift.” When a large space rock slams into the surface of a rocky body like Earth, it often leaves behind an uplifted region in which the rock excavated below rises in a pillar to the surface. Uplift craters are common both on the moon, and on Earth. Tabarah added that we are lucky in Canada to have access to numerous creators with sent features, such as in Manicouagan Lake in Quebec, which is in part due to the sites being more northern and thus better preserved due to less erosion.
Tabarah noted that astronauts do get access to geology opportunities from time to time. The advantage of having this type of expedition, alongside Oz and his trained team, is it provides the astronauts with a pretty accurate simulation of the harsh conditions that one can face in remote expeditions.
The site, he explained, is an uncontrolled area and requires a measure of survival skills and careful teamwork to ensure everyone’s safety. At the same time, there is a clear science return because the team is investigating such a rare crater. And just like in a real space expedition, the astronauts are involved with all aspects of the mission, including the analysis of samples back in the lab. These skills will be particularly crucial for astronauts working on the surface of the moon, and will likely be applicable to the round-the-moon mission of Artemis 2 as well.
“This is true exploration,” he said. “It’s exactly like exploring other planets, actual planetary exploration. Aside from the field geology, what I like about these expeditions for our astronauts, it exposed them to the rigor of field science. It has an element of survival skills in remote and harsh environments. It has elements of leadership and followership skills also, which is important for astronauts in general.”