Two weeks of cave research for the first lunar simulation: Mission accomplished in Castellana
The experiments of the Commercial Analog Astronaut Mission, organized by the association Space Pioneers in collaboration with the Politecnico di Bari, have been completed. A Poliba doctoral researcher was involved
29 October 2025
Two weeks spent seventy meters underground in subterranean cavities, to simulate a hostile extraterrestrial environment for human settlement and to test, under extreme conditions, new techniques to make life on the Moon possible. The protagonists of the experiment, concluded in recent days in Castellana Grotte, were two scholars and space engineering enthusiasts: Tommaso Tonina, president of the non-profit association Space Pioneers and co-founder of the startup Frontier Space Technologies, in the role of mission commander and Andrea Rubino, space engineer, doctoral researcher in Aerospace Engineering and Sciences at the Politecnico di Bari.
The activity was carried out as part of the scientific mission CAAM – Commercial Analog Astronaut Mission, organized by Space Pioneers in collaboration with the Politecnico and under the patronage of the Italian Space Agency, Intesa Sanpaolo and the Apulia Region. Inside the caves, a natural setting considered particularly suitable for simulating space activities, Tonina and Rubino managed a research and development platform for new technologies, materials and procedures for space programs. According to the organizers, this is «a unique event of its kind, the first in Italy, which transformed the Caves into a true international research laboratory».
Over the course of two weeks, the two scholars conducted several experiments: from growing plants on lunar soils to microalgae capable of producing food and biofuels, up to the testing of intra-vehicular suits and astronaut isolation protocols. «For the first time in history – the organizers state in a press release – the inoculation of artificial lunar regolith (regolith is the heterogeneous set of sediments, dust and fragments of surface material) with fungi was tested, in order to make lunar soil fertile and transform “lunar dust” into a vital substrate for plant growth, a crucial step for the development of agriculture beyond the planet».
The results of the mission were presented the day before yesterday at the Franco Anelli speleological museum in Castellana, in the presence of institutional representatives, including the President of the Region, Michele Emiliano, researchers, students and journalists. Representing the Politecnico di Bari was the Rector, Umberto Fratino, who praised the work of the two young scholars, highlighting the university’s interest in the space sector.
For Rubino, 32, a graduate of the Politecnico, this is a new and important experience in the field of studies and applications for the new space economy. Last year, in fact, he took part in the Space Studies Program, an international sector school organized by the International Space University at Rice University, Houston, the university at which President John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered, in 1962, the historic speech in support of the first United States mission to the moon.
The article Two weeks of cave research for the first lunar simulation: Mission accomplished in Castellana comes from Poliba Chronicle.
