Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov will pass the trainings in caves of Sardinia Island (Italy) in the period from September 7 to September 20, 2014. European astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronauts Michael Fossum and Scott Tingle are also going to take part in this program.
The crew will be thoroughly prepared for these training. These preparations include theoretical and practical trainings in caves, mountain climbing course and instructions on mountain climbing equipment use, lectures on map-making and navigation, work with scientific equipment for the experiments.
This is the 4rth time cave trainings are arranged by European Space Agency will take place. Such program enables the crew to improve the teamwork and gain understanding and includes varios scientific experiments: biological, geological, ecological etc.