Cologne – At the edge of Cologne, Germany, a large industrial building contains something extraordinary: the most advanced simulated lunar environment on Earth. Developed jointly by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the European Space Agency (ESA), this facility — known as LUNA — is designed to prepare astronauts, robots, and technologies for a new era of moon exploration.On the 50th anniversary of the creation of the ESA, RFI English went to visit it.
Far from being a film set or museum piece, LUNA is a testbed for the future. It supports not only astronaut training but also the development of new tools and systems for operating in the harsh lunar environment. The facility sits within the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), ESA’s hub for human spaceflight activities.
