Vlog 2: School of rock - Training for the Moon in Canada (part 2 of 2)

Uploaded on October 12, 2023

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Vlog 2: School of rock - Training for the Moon in Canada (part 2 of 2)

The adventure continues for Canadian Space Agency astronauts Jeremy Hansen and Jenni Gibbons, along with NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Raja Chari in this second vlog on their lunar geology training expedition in Kamestastin (also called Mistastin). The crater, located within the traditional hunting grounds of the Mushuau Innu First Nation, contains anorthosite, a rarity on Earth, but abundant on the Moon.   (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, NASA, Fulwell 73 UK Limited)

I'm sitting here in the Kamestastin crater. It's an incredible place here in northern Canada, in Labrador.

This is just a very cool place for us to learn about what we will find on the Moon and to help figure out what we will bring back from the Moon.

So, a bit noisy here. We're on the boat on our way out to the central uplift in the middle of Mistastin crater.

And sounds like we will find some neat stuff. So, looking forward to it.

So, we just stopped in this area. We have quite a bit of melt rocks around.

You can see here; this is kind of what the fresh face of the melt rock looks like. It’s very grey, very fined grained. Rock has been melted and it’s all quite homogeneous. But then sometimes you get chunks of stuff in the melt rock that hasn’t been melted and you can see this very distinct white piece in the melt and that is anorthosite.

These are some complex relationships, but they help scientists unravel the puzzle of what happened here in this crater over 30 million years ago.

But it also helps us understand how we will interpret what we find on the Moon and what that can tell us about the history of the Moon and more importantly, the history of our solar system. And a little bit more about the Universe.

Had some great exchanges with the Innu, guardians that are here in the crater with us. It’s been really special. We spent 3 nights with them around the campfire, sharing dinner with them and hearing about their traditions, how they care for this land. And they've even helped us with our exploration, telling us about where things that they've seen in the crater are.

So, it's been super helpful and really special to share in their culture a little bit. I'm very grateful for that.

All right! All packed up. Ready to leave Kamistastin crater. It’s been a terrific stay and I’m sad to say I’m going. I really enjoyed my time here.

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