ESA and DLR build moon replica in Cologne

Cologne (d.de) – The European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are opening a training facility for astronauts in Cologne today that is one of its kind. The LUNA training centre will enable astronauts to prepare for lunar missions. The centre is to make it easier to research, develop and test space technology under realistic conditions and to obtain knowledge needed for future missions to the moon, such as NASA’s Artemis programme, which will be sending astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Among other things, LUNA features a moon crater and can also simulate moon dust and reduced gravity. One of the project’s main initiators is the German astronaut Matthias Maurer.