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By NASA
4 Min Read NASA Uses Colorado Mountains for Simulated Artemis Moon Landing Course
NASA has certified a new lander flight training course using helicopters, marking a key milestone in crew training for Artemis missions to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA explore the lunar South Pole, paving the way for human exploration farther into the solar system, including Mars.
The mountains in northern Colorado offer similar visual illusions and flight environments to the Moon. NASA partnered with the Colorado Army National Guard at the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site near Gypsum, Colorado, to develop the foundational flight training course.
“Artemis astronauts who will land on the Moon will need to master crew coordination and communication with one another,” said Paul Felker, acting deputy director of flight operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Much like they will on the Moon, astronaut teams are learning how to work together efficiently in a stressful environment to identify hazards, overcome degraded visual environments, and evaluate risks to successfully land.”
During the two-week certification run in late August, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Matthew Dominick participated in flight and landing training to help certify the course. The pair took turns flying a helicopter and navigating to landing zones. Artemis flight crew trainers, mission control leads, and lunar lander operational experts from NASA Johnson joined them on each helicopter flight to assess the instruction, training environment, and technical applications for crewed lunar missions.
NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick (left) and Mark Vande Hei (right) prepare to fly out to a landing zone in the Rocky Mountains as part of the certification run for the NASA Artemis course at the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site in Gypsum, Colorado, Aug. 26. NASA/Michael DeMocker A LUH-72 Lakota helicopter stirs up dust at the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site in Gypsum, Colorado, Aug. 28. NASA/Charles Beason A member of the Colorado Army National Guard peers out of a CH-47 Chinook in preparation for landing Aug. 22. NASA and trained instructors from the Army National Guard use a range of aircraft during flight training. Chinooks are used to demonstrate challenges with landing on the Moon. NASA/Charles Beason NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick (left) and Mark Vande Hei (right) celebrate after returning from a training flight Aug. 26 during a certification run for a lander flight training course for crewed Artemis missions. NASA/Michael DeMocker Paired with trained instructors with the Army National Guard, astronauts fly to mountaintops and valleys in a range of aircraft, including LUH-72 Lakotas, CH-47 Chinooks, and UH-60 Black Hawks. NASA/Charles Beason NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei lands a helicopter as part of flight and landing training at the High Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site Aug. 28. NASA/Michael DeMocker A member of the Colorado Army National Guard looks out of a CH-47 Chinook as it lands at a steep angle Aug. 29. A crater on the Moon could have a similar incline, posing landing challenges for future crewed Artemis missions. NASA/Michael DeMocker A LUH-72 Lakota helicopter flies over the mountains of northern Colorado Aug. 28 during a certification run for a lander flight training course for crewed Artemis missions. The mountains and valleys in Colorado have similar visual illusions to the Moon. NASA/Michael DeMocker The patch for the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site is pictured in the cupola of the International Space Station in 2023. NASA and the Colorado Army National Guard began working together in 2021 to develop a foundational lunar lander simulated flight training course for Artemis. NASA The NASA astronauts and trained instructor pilots with the Army National Guard flew to progressively more challenging landing zones throughout the course, navigating the mountainous terrain, and working together to quickly and efficiently land the aircraft.
Teams can train year-round using the course. Depending on the season, the snowy or dusty conditions can cause visual obstruction. Lunar dust can cause similar visual impairment during future crewed missions.
“Here in Colorado, we have specifically flown to dusty areas, so we know and understand just how important dust becomes during the final descent phase,” Vande Hei said. “Dust will interact with the lander thrusters on the Moon. During our flight training, we have had to revert to our instruments – just like we would on the Moon – because astronauts may lose all their visual cues when they’re near the surface.”
During Artemis III, four astronauts inside the agency’s Orion spacecraft on top of the SLS (Space Launch System rocket) will launch to meet SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System in lunar orbit. Orion will then dock with the Starship system and two astronauts will board the lander. Astronauts will use the Starship lander to safely transport themselves from lunar orbit to the lunar surface. Following surface operations, the two astronauts will use Starship to launch from the lunar surface, back to lunar orbit, and dock with Orion to safely journey back to Earth.
The NASA-focused course has been in development since 2021. Vande Hei and Dominick are the 24th and 25th NASA astronauts to participate in and evaluate the course based on functionality and Artemis mission needs. One ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut has also participated in the course.
“This course will likely be one of the first group flight training opportunities for the Artemis III crew,” said NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock, who helped to develop the foundational training course for the agency. “While the astronauts will also participate in ground and simulation training in Ohio and Texas, the real-world flight environment in Colorado at offers astronauts an amazing simulation of the problem solving and decision making needed to control and maneuver a lunar lander across an equally dynamic landscape.”
Though the course is now certified for Artemis, teams will continue to evaluate the training based on astronaut and technical feedback to ensure mission success and crew safety.
Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars for the benefit of all.
For more information about Artemis visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
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Last Updated Sep 10, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayContactCorinne M. Beckingercorinne.m.beckinger@nasa.govLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
Explore This Section Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is Perseverance? Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mission Updates Science Overview Objectives Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Perseverance Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home This image was taken when Perseverance topped Soroya ridge. Using the Left Navigation Camera (Navcam), the image was acquired on Aug. 17, 2025 (Sol 1597) at the local mean solar time of 13:54:37. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Eleanor Moreland, Ph.D. Student Collaborator at Rice University
Perseverance has continued exploring beyond the rim of Jezero crater, spending time last week at Parnasset conducting a mini-campaign on aeolian bedforms. After wrapping up that work, three separate drives brought Perseverance further southeast to an outcrop named Soroya.
Soroya was first picked out from orbital images as a target of interest because, as can be seen in the above image, it appears as a much lighter color compared to the surroundings. In previous landscape images from the surface, Mars 2020 scientists have been able to pick out the light-toned Soryoa outcrop, and they noted it forms a ridge-like structure, protruding above the surface. Soroya was easily identifiable from rover images (below) as Perseverance approached since it indeed rises above the surrounding low-lying terrain.
The Perseverance rover acquired this image looking at Soroya using the onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). This image was acquired on Aug. 15, 2025 (Sol 1595) at the local mean solar time of 16:34:53. NASA/JPL-Caltech From Parnasset to Soroya, the team planned a series of drives so that Perseverance would arrive at Soroya in a great workspace, and the plan was successful. As shown in the first image, we arrived at an area with flat, exposed bedrock – great for proximity science instruments.
The WATSON and SHERLOC ACI cameras plan to acquire many high-resolution images to investigate textures and surface features. For chemistry, SCAM LIBS and ZCAM multispectral activities will give important contextual data for the outcrop while PIXL will acquire a high-resolution chemical map scan of a dust-cleared part of the bedrock. While parked, MEDA will continue monitoring environmental conditions and ZCAM will image the surrounding terrain to inform the next drive location. Take a look at where Perseverance is now – where would you explore next?
Want to read more posts from the Perseverance team?
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Last Updated Aug 27, 2025 Related Terms
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Curiosity Blog, Sols 4638-4640: Imaging Extravaganza Atop a Ridge
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image on Aug. 21, 2025, looking across the ridge that the rover is currently parked near the edge of, looking down into the “Thumb” region that mission planners hope to be exploring next week. Curiosity captured this image using its Left Navigation Camera on Sol 4636, or Martian day 4,636 of the MArs Science Laboratory mission, at 16:09:13 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University
Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 22, 2025
Curiosity is continuing its winding path through the mysterious boxwork structures that have been a major focus of the last several months of the mission. After driving away from “Río Frío,” we are now parked on top of a ridge overlooking a topographic depression that we’ve nicknamed the “Thumb.” The image on this post shows that ridge running along the “thumb’s” edge. Our goal today is to characterize this ridge before we drive down into the Thumb.
Because we had a lot of power and three sols available to play around with, this weekend plan is packed with a lot of good science. The boxwork structures in our immediate vicinity get a lot of attention, with Mastcam images planned of the targets “Wallatiri,” “Wallatiri 2,” “Mojo,” “Samaipata,” “Fort Samaipata,” and “Río Lluta,” as well as a nearby trough. ChemCam will be taking LIBS measurements of both Samaipata and Fort Saaipata as well. Samaipata gets even more attention from MAHLI, in addition to the targets “Vitichi” and “Tartagalita,” both of which will also be observed by APXS.
The boxwork structures don’t get all of the fun today, though. In addition to all of the boxwork observations, Mastcam will be documenting the ChemCam AEGIS target from Monday’s plan, and will also be doing some more imaging of the “Mishe Mokwa” butte. The highlight of Mastcam’s work in this plan (at least in my opinion) is the large 44-image mosaic of the north crater rim, taking advantage of the particularly low dust content of the atmosphere at this time of year. ChemCam will be taking several RMI images of Mishe Mokwa and a distant outcrop at “Dragones” that we will be driving towards over the next several months, as well as the usual post-drive AEGIS.
Rounding out this plan is a collection of observations of the atmosphere. In addition to typical DAN, REMS, and RAD activities, Curiosity’s Navcams will be put to work with a dust-devil movie, dust-devil survey, five cloud movies, and two line-of-sight observations of the north crater rim. Mastcam also gets involved in the environmental fun with a tau to track the amount of dust in the air.
Even with all of these activities, we decided that we aren’t yet done with this area. The drive in today’s plan is a short bump of about 2 meters (about 6.6 feet), so we’re all looking forward to continuing our investigation of this ridge on Monday.
Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team?
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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity at the base of Mount Sharp NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Share
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Last Updated Aug 26, 2025 Related Terms
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2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
ResilienX employees Angelo Niforatos, left, and Ryan Pleskach, right, overview the NASA safety tools integrated into the company’s commercial system, July 11, 2025, at the ResilienX Headquarters in Syracuse, New York. Credit: ResilienX A future with advanced air mobility aircraft populating the skies will require the U.S. to implement enhanced preflight planning that can mitigate potential risks well before takeoff – and NASA is working to develop the tools to make that happen.
Preflight planning is critical to ensuring safety in the complex, high-risk environments of the future airspace. Timely, predictive, and up-to-date risk assessment within a single platform makes it much easier for drone or air taxi operators to check flight plans for high-risk concerns.
NASA is working on tools to deliver those services, and in June, the agency and aviation safety company ResilienX Inc. demonstrated how these tools can be integrated into commercial systems.
During a series of tests conducted at ResilienX’s facility in Syracuse, New York, researchers used NASA services that allowed flight operators to submit flight plans prior to departure, obtain risk assessment results, and then decide whether to proceed with flights or change their flight plans and re-assess risks. Allowing operators to perform these tasks quickly reduces the safety risk to flight passengers as well as humans on the ground.
The three NASA-developed services are intended to assess unique risks associated with highly automated aircraft flying at low altitudes over cities.
The partnership was managed under a Phase III NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract, which is an extension of prior work to assess weather-related risks. This collaboration is already leading to direct technology transfer of safety systems into ResilienX’s platform. The partnership is also intended to provide indirect benefits for ResilienX partners and customers, such as the U.S. Air Force and regional operators, helping to advance the overall safety of future airspace operations.
This work is led by NASA’s System-Wide Safety project under the Airspace Operations and Safety program in support of the agency’s Advanced Air Mobility mission. The mission seeks to deliver data, findings, and recommendations to guide the industry’s development of future air taxis and drones.
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Last Updated Aug 22, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactTeresa Whitingteresa.whiting@nasa.gov Related Terms
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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4631-4633: Radiant Ridge Revolution
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on Aug. 14, 2025 — Sol 4629, or Martian day 4,629 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 12:11:32 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Remington Free, Operations Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 15, 2025
Today we uplinked a three-sol weekend plan with lots of exciting activities — to support both the science and engineering teams!
While usually our science activities take front and center stage, we often also do engineering maintenance activities as well to maintain the mechanisms and engineering health state of the rover. On Sol 4631, we planned a maintenance activity of our Battery Control Boards (BCBs) which are electronic control boards attached to the rover’s batteries and are what let us interact with the batteries as needed. This maintenance is done periodically to correct for any time drift on the BCBs, so we get as accurate of data as possible.
On this sol, we also did a dump of all of our parameters — these are essentially variables set onboard the rover which serve as inputs to a variety of functions. Occasionally we send a list of all these variables back down to the ground so we can verify they match as expected. We don’t want to have set a value and then forget about it!
We, of course, also did science activities on this sol. After completing our engineering activities, we started off with some remote science; this included Mastcam imaging and ChemCam measurements of several interesting targets. These were chosen in order to assess variability within the “Cerro Paranal” ridge within view, and to document any layering or fractures in the rock. We then completed several arm activities in order to get more information on these targets through the use of our APXS spectrometer.
On Sol 4632, we planned some remote atmospheric science, including a Navcam dust-devil survey, a Mastcam tau (measurement of the atmospheric opacity), APXS atmospheric observations, and more imaging of some of the ridge targets we looked at in the previous sol.
On Sol 4633, we continued with more science imaging, including a horizon movie using Navcam and a dust-devil movie, before proceeding into our drive. We planned a drive of about 19 meters (about 62 feet) to the south, along the eastern edge of Cerro Paranal. After the drive, it is then standard for us to take new imaging of our new location. We’re excited to get these science images back and to hear how the drive went when the team comes back on Monday!
Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team?
Visit Mission Updates
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