Why Chinese Astronauts Were Forced into Cave Life 0 7

The Chinese astronaut team completed a nearly month-long training program in natural underground caves — one of the elements of preparation for future manned flights to the Moon.

The training, which took place in a mountainous area of Chongqing municipality in southwestern China, involved 28 participants. They were divided into four groups: each took turns spending six days and five nights in cold, damp caves. The conditions were as harsh and isolated as possible to bring the training closer to the real tasks of space missions.

The program is aimed at testing the crews' ability to work in extreme environments and has become part of the expansion of the Chinese astronaut training system. Participants practiced environmental monitoring, cave mapping, simulating communication between "space and Earth," as well as team psychological and behavioral resilience. Concurrently, scientific research was conducted, including the interaction of humans with extreme conditions. During the training, instructors unexpectedly introduced emergency medical evacuation scenarios to test response skills and collaborative decision-making.

According to Jiang Yuan, an instructor at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, the collected data will be used to create psychological support systems for crews facing long-duration flights to the orbital station and future lunar missions.

Such training is seen as part of China's plans to land humans on the Moon by 2030. In the longer term, China plans to build an International Lunar Research Station in the 2030s.