Astronaut training in the Grand Canyon: A turning point in training when the astronauts started disliking geology less and learned about how to extract the mysteries from the rocks

The Apollo astronauts were not especially enthused about the geology training; they were test pilots, aeronautical engineers, military people, and they had enough on their plate in preparation for their missions that they did not need additional tasks. This changed after their excursion into the Grand Canyon, where they learned not only about the rocks exposed in the Canyon, but also that these rocks represented an incredible amount of time and a good part of Earth’s history, and a good part of Earth’s history, as well as the record of the development of life, including our own and thus theirs.