This former Flagstaff geologist is training to be an astronaut. Here's what she's learning

Dr. Lauren Edgar has already had a remarkable career. She spent 17 years working with the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars Exploration Rovers. And she’s been a scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, where she led the TARGET program — that’s Terrestrial Analogs for Research and Geologic Exploration Training.

Now Edgar is leaving terrestrial work behind, and heading for outer space. She’s a member of the new class of NASA Astronauts, and she’s been training hard for upcoming missions. She spoke with The Show about what that training looks like.

Full conversation

LAUREN EDGAR: So when you're thinking about going to space, you're going to be working with a small team in a confined environment for a long duration, potentially. And so you really want to make sure that you're selecting individuals that have that resilience, that have those teamwork skills to work together to troubleshoot when issues arise.

SAM DINGMAN: Do they do like dry runs of chaotic scenarios or anything like that?

EDGAR: Yeah, I've certainly had some dry runs of chaotic scenarios like learning about emergency systems and the procedures and things to follow coming out of that. I think part of that is more just how to operate, but I'm sure that going through a lot of these different test cases is also mentally preparing us as well.

DINGMAN: And when you're going through one of those emergency preparedness scenarios, can you describe for me where you are, what you're seeing as that's happening? Are you in like a fake rover, or what does it look like?

EDGAR: Yeah, so we have basically mockups of all of the modules that are part of the International Space Station, as well as other vehicles. But the part that I've gone through so far is preparing for the International Space Station. So we do a lot of realistic training in those mockup environments. I mentioned going through like how to address cautions and warnings and you certainly hear the tones, you're seeing the blinking lights, you're learning how to assess the criticality and timeliness of different issues that arise. It kind of reminds me a little bit of that scene in "Apollo 13" where it's like suddenly everything is blinking and going off at the same time, and how do you troubleshoot?

[CLIP FROM "APOLLO 13" PLAYS]

The first time I saw it, it felt like that. And then the subsequent times, you're prepared and you know how to handle it.

DINGMAN: OK, I'm trying to imagine myself in that situation, which is utterly ridiculous. But I'm imagining myself in that situation and, imagining having the thought like, "Oh, this is really gonna happen. Like, I'm really gonna be up there." Does that go through your mind?

EDGAR: It does. You're like, "Pinch me, I can't believe this is real." And so, yeah, you do start to imagine what went from just being a class to this might be what a day-to-day looks like someday, and just really excited for that.

DINGMAN: Wow. Well, what are some of the projects that you have worked on where you felt like this is great, but I'd really love to really get up there and have some firsthand experience with this?

EDGAR: Yeah, so I certainly think my time working on Mars rover missions, like the Mars Exploration Rovers, and then more recently the Curiosity rover mission, helped prepare me for thinking how to explore other planets.

I was also part of the Artemis III science team, and so we were the geology team trying to define when astronauts returned to the lunar south pole, what are the types of observations, the key locations to go and collect samples, as well as doing a lot of field work in remote environments on Earth. So I got to do some field work in Antarctica, places in Iceland.

DINGMAN: Yeah, I can imagine being in a place like Antarctica, somewhere that remote, it must feel almost like you're on another planet?

EDGAR: It does feel a bit that way, and it makes you appreciate our dynamic Earth and these really fragile environments that make you love and want to protect the Earth as much as we can.

DINGMAN: Ask you a weird question about Antarctica? Is it unbelievably quiet?

EDGAR: I feel like my experience is that the wind is always blowing. And so it is so windy that you're just constantly hearing that. But there's also like, although it's windy, there is like a stillness to it, where if you wander away from your group a little bit and you feel like you really are out there.

DINGMAN: Right, right. Like all that's left would be to lift up your feet and kind of float away, right?

EDGAR: Yes.

DINGMAN: Couple other training questions I'm curious to ask you if you'd be willing to share. I know that part of the training you've been doing is land training survival in Alabama. What does that look like?

EDGAR: Yeah, so land survival training was a really great experience for our whole class. You learn the basics of shelter building, making a fire, how to acquire food, how to navigate across land at both daytime and nighttime in challenging environments.

And it kind of culminates in a big experience at the end where you're in teams and working through things that might require performing some wilderness first aid, carrying around different equipment. There's always like a time pressure or stress that really brings out some of those team dynamics that we could work on at the same time.

DINGMAN: What does the shelter that you had to build look like?

EDGAR: So we were just using what you might have accessible. So we had ponchos and string between two trees and how to prep. That was what we ended up sleeping under, but also depending on where you might be doing land survival, if you have logs and trees around, how to build stronger shelters, kind of A-frame shelters, or other to protect you from the elements.

DINGMAN: Gotcha. And I'm sorry if this is a dense question, but what is the connection between that and being in outer space? What kind of situations is that sort of training preparing you for?

EDGAR: Yeah, so first of all, if you're out on just any training flight around here, if you don't land where you intended to, there might be a brief time that you would need to survive, as well as coming back from a spaceflight mission. We have targeted landing sites that you would return to, but if you were off course, there might be some time before help can get to you.

So kind of normally preparing for one of those situations, but then there's of those other skills that in going through a land survival course, you're working on the team dynamics and the leadership and the communications and the navigation that would be required for spaceflight as well.

DINGMAN: Wow. I know part of the training also was driving lunar vehicle models, right? As someone who worked with rovers remotely, what was it like to actually drive one?

EDGAR: Yes, so my experience from Mars exploration is that you spend a whole day on Earth planning what the rover's going to do that day on Mars. Uplink the commands, the rover carries it out, and then you get new data the next day.

The kind of exploration that we're doing right now for human exploration is real time. The pace is so much faster. And getting to actually operate these very capable — these are the engineering models for the lunar terrain vehicle and then a pressurized rover, so think more like a car where you have windows and you don't have to be in a spacesuit inside.

But it was really cool to see the types of ways that you can navigate the terrain, what types of slopes you might encounter, how to overcome obstacles. So it was a really fun experience.

DINGMAN: What is your greatest hope for what humanity or you specifically might gain from missions like the ones you will now go on? Obviously, there's a lot of talk these days about in the not-too-distant future, long-term human presence, living on other planets. Is it related to that for you, or is it something else?

EDGAR: Yeah, so really big picture, I am hoping that by contributing to space exploration, we can better understand our own planet and our role in the solar system, as well as the history of our solar system and how planets formed and evolved, when and where did life arise in the solar system. I think that all of these missions that we're talking about are building towards that type of understanding.

DINGMAN: When and where did life arise? Big questions indeed. Well, I have been speaking with Lauren Edgar, a NASA astronaut candidate and a former research geologist in Flagstaff at the U.S. Geological Survey. Lauren, thank you so much for this conversation. Congratulations and good luck.

EDGAR: Thank you so much for your support. I appreciate it.