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activities has proven valuable for teaching both geology and space-
flight management skills.
Figure 1. Astronauts Andrew Morgan and Christina Hammock Koch working THE FUTURE GSA TODAY | www.geosociety.org/gsatoday
a field geologic mapping problem along the Rio Grande Gorge in the Rio
Grande del Norte National Monument, Questa, New Mexico, USA. NASA Our team is currently looking forward to training the 2017
photograph jsc2014e069405 by Lauren Harnett. astronaut candidate class. We will also continue to offer short
geologic field experiences for NASA engineers and managers and
preliminary geologic map of the field area, adding new observa- provide additional preflight training as requested by astronauts
tions and interpretations as they learn about topics in the class- who have been selected for ISS missions and want a deeper under-
room. Fieldwork includes three days of geologic mapping and standing of the geology they will see on orbit. We are also
one day of geophysical surveys to add subsurface data. We group expanding “post-graduate” training opportunities to accommo-
the astronauts into small groups (in 2013, four per group, with date a strong crew interest in geology, which we have seen
two geologist instructor-mentors), and each group combines continue after their basic geology training. We feel that this is a
their individual preliminary maps into a consensus solution to good indicator that Earth and planetary science is alive and well
the geology of the field area. On the final day in the field, each in NASA’s Astronaut Corps. That interest and experience will be
astronaut team presents a geologic map, cross section, and critical for developing crew operations for future planetary explo-
geologic interpretation. ration missions.
Throughout the training, we underscore that the purpose is to ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
develop astronauts’ abilities to infer processes from products, to
recognize significant relationships and events on Earth’s surface, The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions and
and to document and describe those events in a way that allows participation of all the instructors who have helped make this
Earth-bound scientists to understand and visualize them. Both training successful, including Paul Abell, Waleed Abdalati, Paul
in the classroom and in the field, we emphasize the relationships Bauer, Don Bogard, Paula Bontempi, John Callas, David Carrier,
among outcrop, local, regional, and global patterns. In short, the Roy Christoffersen, Chris Condit, Pat Dickerson, Jay Dixon, Allen
training is designed to give them an effective experience in Glazner, Tien Grauch, Jim Hansen, Jim Head, Kip Hodges, Fred
doing what geologists do and tying that to what they will see Hörz, José Hurtado, David Kring, Gary Lofgren, Jeff Plescia,
from the ISS. Harrison Schmitt, David R. Scott, Will Stefanov, Robert Stern,
Rob Stewart, Dawn Sumner, Phil Townsend, Jim Tucker, Woody
FIELD TRAINING—INTEGRATING GEOLOGY AND FLIGHT Turner, Justin Wilkinson, and Michael Zolensky.
OPERATIONS
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Manuscript received 28 Apr. 2016; accepted 3 June 2016. ▲
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