On another EarthDate, we talked about the Space Race to the Moon.

NASA recruited its Gemini and Apollo astronauts from the fighter pilot program. They had nerves of steel and could make split-second decisions.

But they also needed a strong scientific background for their missions.

So NASA trained them in aerodynamics, rocket propulsion, celestial navigation, spacecraft guidance, and ultra-long-distance communication.

Most of these were about getting to the Moon. But what would they do once they got there?

They needed to understand topography and sediments to choose a safe and stable landing spot. They needed to know which rock samples to collect and which surface features to describe and how to log what they observed so scientists could learn from it.

And for all that, they needed geology!

So NASA set up geology training camps across the American West. Not having been to the Moon, instructors used their best guesses to find places that resembled it.

Astronauts hiked the Grand Canyon, training to recognize sediment layers. They collected rock and soil samples in Texas, practiced field mapping in New Mexico, studied craters in Arizona and Alaska and volcanic structures in Oregon and Hawaii.

NASA even built lunar landscape simulations, blasting a field full of artificial craters where astronauts could learn to drive the moon rovers.

It’s ironic that, to make the most of their priceless time on the Moon, astronauts had to become proficient in geology—literally, the study of Earth.