Underground exploration is similar
to the endeavour that humans, in the future,
will have to take in yet unexplored planets.
Flying in space can be very dangerous
and managing the risk takes a great amount of effort and skill.
At CAVES they have tied the logistics, the training, the mission
and the team comradely for such an extreme mission.
We are astronauts, cosmonauts, specialists of different countries,
we have different cultures, habits, knowledge, languages,
but we need to work together.
Unknown territory. Let’s Go!
[Future space explorers] will have to learn to navigate
unmapped regions with hard terrains,
to observe carefully the environment, to catch any signs of life,
they will have to perform science, navigation,
to be good at each other job, to be able to take over.
You and Sergey will go to White Sands
Day by day everything became more challenging.
Before I thought: “Will we need all the skills we learned?”
Indeed we needed them. This huge cave
contains lots of pools, shafts, difficult passages
tight squeezes we have to go through.
It’s climbing up and down mountains using ropes,
crawling through squeezes, you did not think your body could do.
It challenges your physical and mental abilities
to overcome your weaknesses.
It also challenges the team to come together.
One important thing is the energy of your batteries,
almost like oxygen for breathing in space.
[We] execute the mission to achieve the science
that we need to go forward
it’s annoying, you switch it off
I like this experience:
it’s real teambuilding, leadership training,
it’s very helpful, not only in the space programme.
We are at the end of Day 5,
we have survived all the challenges,
we are back in our base camp.
Tomorrow is the last day, we exit.
The CAVES programme and team have it all.
It’s a very good analogue to human spaceflight,
especially when we start exploring distant places.
Right now we are at Witch Hat
we will be at the entrance in 30 minutes.
What I found through this experience:
just like in spaceflight,
in order for 5 people to have one week underground
there is an incredible amount of people taking care of us
planning, giving support, making movies, documenting.
These people are always invisible,
just like the beauty of this cave is invisible in the darkness,
but is nonetheless beautiful.
The beauty of this people and what they do
is really appreciated by all of us.
This is my chance to thank all those
who took part into this programme,
giving support, making the organisation work so well,
and giving me a chance to find a part of myself
that I didn’t know existed,
as well as a part of the world that I didn’t know was there.