Artemis Astronauts Showcase UT Geology Roots

The Artemis II crew safely splashed down last week after successfully flying by the far side of the moon, making them the first astronauts to travel back to the moon in over half a century. But years before they captured the world's imagination with their historic space flight and pictures of the Earth rise over the far side of the moon, they were trained in field geology by a professor who put generations of Longhorn geologists through their paces.

Mark Helper, now an emeritus distinguished senior lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences, helped train every new class of NASA astronaut hopefuls since 2009, including all four of the moonfaring Artemis II astronauts: Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

While the geosciences might not necessarily jump to the forefront of people's minds when discussing space missions, exploring moons and planets fundamentally involves geology.

Helper said he felt a sense of immense pride watching the Artemis II fly-by and listening to his former NASA students put some of the skills they learned in the field to work.

"I was a bit like a proud parent listening to Victor and Reid talking about and describing what they were seeing," he said. "To have your very best students and see them being successful - based a little bit on what you've taught them - that's incredibly satisfying."

NASA selects a new astronaut candidate class about every four years. Each astronaut class undergoes 18 months of training before graduating to join the Astronaut Corps. That training covers basic spaceflight operations, International Space Station systems, spacewalks, robotic arm operations, flight certification, and other skills - including field geology. In the Artemis II crew, Wiseman and Hansen were part of the 2009 class, and Glover and Koch were part of the 2013 class.