Inside ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC): where missions come to life

ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) is where the astronauts chosen to lead Europe’s human space exploration missions undergo rigorous training to prepare for spaceflight. At this establishment, located near Cologne, Germany, all hands are on deck to make ESA’s human spaceflight missions a success. A career at ESA-EAC means being a part of one of humanity’s boldest, most awe-inspiring endeavours.

As Europe’s focal point for human spaceflight, it will come as no surprise that EAC colleagues work with world-class facilities and technology. This includes a 10-metre-deep Neutral Buoyancy Facility, in which astronauts prepare for spacewalks, and the Columbus simulator that provides hands-on training for commanding and monitoring the European research laboratory Columbus on the ISS, as well as 3D printing technology that is enabling research into future possibilities for building on the Moon.  Also at EAC is a facility that will recreate the Moon’s surface on Earth: LUNA, providing a valuable test-bed for tools and concepts as well as a location for research and a training ground for astronauts.

In this edition, we ask three experts to share their insights and experiences of working at EAC. Read on to find out what makes this establishment a cornerstone of European human space exploration.

Lisa Denzer, AI Lab Lead

Can you tell us about your work at the AI Lab at EAC?

We are interested in understanding how Artificial Intelligence can make a difference in the planning, delivery and operations of current and future space exploration missions. Our expectation is that AI can help us to make the things we already do more efficient and implement new mission scenarios that would not be possible without AI. To demonstrate this, we work with experts across ESA to implement AI in a range of different activities. We do this both by developing prototypes ourselves and through collaborations with industry. EAC’s AI Lab also has close ties with its XR Lab, which provides, for example, virtual reality training to astronauts, and the Q-Lab, which investigates the feasibility of using quantum technology for exploration.

What do you think is the biggest potential of AI in space missions?

AI has great potential to de-risk crewed missions and help astronauts carry out their work more efficiently and safely, whether they are on a transfer vehicle, space station or planetary surface. At the same time, AI also makes it possible for us to explore distant worlds that are currently beyond human exploration. For example, it takes at least five minutes for a signal to reach Mars, making real-time operations impossible. Therefore, we depend on AI to help us explore the surface as efficiently and autonomously as possible, from route planning to carrying out scientific investigations. Last but not least, AI is also incredibly helpful in areas such as predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, operations of ISS and the Lunar Gateway, and might extend the lifetime of certain missions overall.

What is life at EAC like?

EAC is one of the smaller sites in the ESA landscape, hosting about 150 people, and therefore has a very friendly atmosphere. Due to the astronaut training taking place here, there are many interesting activities happening all year round. The local community also features a large number of students and young professionals, making it a vibrant hub for brainstorming and prototyping news ideas. Being located in the vicinity of Cologne and Bonn, two larger cities, there are also many possibilities to enjoy life outside work, and many friendships extend beyond the EAC campus.

Aidan Cowley,  Spaceship & Facilities Team Lead, Science Advisor

You are currently working on LUNA, a facility that recreates the Moon’s surface on Earth. What does your role involve?

LUNA is a project that I’ve been involved with almost from the start, with different roles throughout the lifecycle of the facility. Now I am happy to support LUNA as a scientific advisor, acting somewhat as a liaison between scientists and science questions around the facility and its usage for campaigns. I also am a user of the facility, as the Spaceship team, an innovation group here that I help lead, often has projects and experiments that are designed to be tested or used within LUNA. I enjoy both these roles as they really leverage my experience at ESA and my science/technology background.

What’s one of the biggest challenges you face when replicating lunar conditions and how do you overcome it?

There are a multitude of challenges when realising LUNA. One of the big ones was how we simulate the lunar surface and what fidelity of realism are we willing to accept? Ultimately no facsimile is ever going to approach what the moon is really like at this scale – it’s a very unique place. We had to look at factors like usability, representativeness and cost when approaching how we recreate the moon on Earth. For example, the LUNA testbed is made up of 900 tonnes of regolith, which replicates the sand-like material you find on the surface of the moon. We had to identify where we could source this material from here in Europe, looking at locations in Spain, Norway and Germany, before ultimately checking the source material against those criteria. We are now very happy with our answer to this challenge, but it took many years of work to do our homework on what would be the best solution.

What is a typical day in the life at LUNA?

It really varies, since we now have a range of different campaigns wanting to come and use LUNA. A few weeks ago we had swarm robotics being demonstrated inside, next week we are going to be doing some excavation work on the regolith, a few weeks later we have some analogue spacesuit testing. On my side, a lot of the daily work involves ensuring that the testbed regolith is well maintained and that the proper protocols for protection are being followed. I also engage with a number of teams who are planning to come and use the facility, helping them better understand what is possible with LUNA. This involves using my science and technology background as well as my bespoke experience with LUNA and EAC to best advise these future users.

Ruediger Seine, Space Training Team Leader

What are the main physical and psychological challenges astronauts face during training?

In a way, the biggest challenge is the sheer density and duration of the astronaut training process: as a minimum, a mission to the ISS requires one year of basic training to become eligible for assignment, plus approximately two years of training for the specific mission. Add to that 27 hours of technical training per week and travel between training locations in Europe and ISS partner countries and you can imagine the stresses that result from this. As with everybody else, astronauts also have individual preferences and difficulties among the subjects and topics on the schedule, but the instructors will strive to make it as palatable as possible.

How do you foresee astronaut training evolving to meet the specific demands of lunar or Mars exploration?

As we progress further away from Earth, crew autonomy becomes more important because of the communication delays and reduced ground capability to operate the spacecraft in support of the crew. Training will have to adapt to this change in operations – we will need to provide the crew with the knowledge and the tools to exercise their autonomy. For Mars missions, there will certainly be a lot of training performed en route to Mars, because there is a lot of time available and the crew will need to meet the challenges of descent, egress and surface work once they arrive at the red planet. To keep the training time on the ground reasonable, we’ll have to train new content in space and also assess capabilities before key activities are performed.

What was your 2024 highlight and what are you most looking forward to in 2025?

The 2024 highlight clearly was the graduation of our latest class of ESA Astronauts, the Hoppers. For the training team, that was the conclusion of three very busy and engaged years. We are now very excited to see the astronauts starting to train for actual missions to the ISS. In 2025 we will focus more on training preparations for the Gateway components provided by ESA, while continuing to provide training for the ongoing ISS operations. This will be an exciting phase of defining training requirements and training facilities.

Find your path at ESA

ESA offers a number of entry-level programmes targeting students, recent graduates and young professionals alongside its vacancies for experienced professionals. One of them could be your path to space! Quickly find out which programme could be the best fit for you by following the pathways at ESA on our entry-level flowchart.

What aspect of EAC fascinates you the most? Let us know in the comments 👇 and stay tuned for our next edition as we explore more exciting stories from the world of space exploration.