Astrogeology Science Center

The Rise of the USGS in Space Exploration: How the Astrogeology Science Center is integral to the past, present, and future investigation of the Solar System.

By Justin J. Hagerty, Director of the Astrogeology Science Center

• Every astronaut to set foot on the Moon trained with the USGS in

MSL Sol 2639: SAM Image

Sols 2574-2576: Characterizing Central Butte

Before landing on the surface of the moon in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin needed a training ground that matched their destination's cratered surface.

In the U.S., that turned out to be northern Arizona. Starting in 1967, the U.S. Geological Survey used hundreds of pounds of dynamite to blast holes into the surface of ancient lava fields south of

USGS Field Test Support Unit (left to right) Dick Wiser, John Hendricks, Bill Tinnin and Putty Mills with the Explorer, a lunar rover vehicle simulator at Cinder Lake Crater Field east of Flagstaff, December 1968. 

High-spatial-resolution airborne images of the Tern Lake area from 1994, 2006, and 2017. The area of bright pixels identified in the Landsat-8 thermal infrared image corresponds to a newly emerging area of warm ground and tree kills about 32,500 m² (8 acres, or 4 soccer fields) in area. The air photo from 2006 shows the beginnings of a tree kill zone. The black

Landsat-8 nighttime thermal infrared image from April 2017 showing the Tern Lake area. In Yellowstone, temperatures are extremely cold at night in the winter, and most lakes are frozen (dark pixels). West Tern Lake seems to be thawing here - perhaps it receives some thermal waters from nearby hot springs. The patch of bright (warm) pixels between West Tern Lake and the

Map of thermal areas in Yellowstone National Park. Most of Yellowstone's more than 10,000 thermal features are clustered together into about 120 distinct thermal areas (shown in red). Lakes are blue. The Yellowstone Caldera is solid black and the resurgent domes are dotted black. Roads are yellow. The orange box shows the location of the Tern Lake thermal area.

In preperation for Apollo 15, David Scott and James Irwin trained with a training version of the Lunar Rover known as the "Grover". Apollo 15 was the first mission to bring a rover. This allowed the astronauts to cover a larger distance and explore a larger area. 

This is a photo of a pink sand dune in Utah.

Review of all elements included in the GIS template provided to NASA-funded mappers producing USGS SIM-series planetary geologic maps.