📋 Tender Overview
Recently, the first astronaut cave training in China, organized and implemented by the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, successfully concluded in Wulong District, Chongqing. During this training, a total of 28 astronauts were divided into 4 groups to complete 6 days and 5 nights of cave training. Through task-oriented scenario design, intensive training models, and various technological innovations, the training enriched the content of Chinas astronaut training system and honed astronauts comprehensive abilities to cope with extreme environments, providing strong support for future missions such as longer-duration flights to the space station and manned lunar landings.
In December 2025, astronauts conducted training in the cave, as shown in the main cave site. The cave environment shares similarities with extreme conditions in space, such as isolation, confinement, and high risk. Wu Bin, the deputy chief designer of the astronaut system for the China Manned Space Engineering, explained that the training organized astronauts to complete predetermined tasks such as cave exploration, scientific research, material management, and life support. During this period, astronauts experienced narrow passage navigation, cliff climbing and descending, long-term wet and cold stimulation, and extreme physical tests, overcoming challenges such as fear of darkness and sensory deprivation.
The purpose of this training is to enhance astronauts abilities to respond to danger, work independently, collaborate in teams, make emergency decisions, conduct scientific investigations, endure physically, and develop psychological resilience in extreme environments, Wu Bin said. This is also a comprehensive assessment of the astronauts.
Focusing on future needs, Chinas first cave training presented multiple innovative highlights.
In terms of content design, more than ten subjects were set up, including environmental monitoring, cave mapping, simulated communication between Earth and space, and team psychological behavior training, in line with the characteristics of space exploration missions. Seven scientific studies on the interaction between humans and extreme environments were conducted simultaneously, obtaining a wealth of valuable samples and data.
In terms of training organization, the astronauts were grouped and advanced in a staggered manner, completing cave training and jungle training in an interleaved manner, with seamless transitions between subjects, efficiently completing all training tasks within a month, saving time and labor costs.
In terms of support systems, the China Astronaut Research and Training Center led the formation of a multi-unit joint working group with relevant local government departments and professional rescue teams, adhering to the principle of minimum investment, maximum support, mobilizing elite forces, and adopting a collaborative model combining on-site support and remote technical assistance to ensure efficient and intensive training.
In December 2025, astronauts conducted team collaboration training during cave training.
Ye Guangfu, an astronaut from the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Astronaut Brigade who participated in European cave training and served as one of the training commanders in this training, stated that this cave training in China places greater emphasis on stimulating astronauts independent capabilities by reducing in-cave support interventions and strengthening psychological monitoring and support, accumulating valuable experience for future space flights.
According to Jiang Yuan, an astronaut instructor at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, psychological resilience is an important quality for astronauts during space flights. The cave is a typical scene of extreme confinement and isolation, with its core psychological challenges being sensory deprivation, risk uncertainty, and limited social interaction. This trainings research and intervention on astronauts psychological states in extreme environments hold significant scientific value. Through psychological state tracking assessments and group psychological support techniques during the training, not only did it help astronauts adapt smoothly to the cave environment, but it also accumulated a large amount of data on psychological changes in extreme environments. This data will provide important support for the construction of psychological support systems for astronauts in future long-term missions at the space station and manned lunar missions.
The first group of trained astronaut Zhu Yangzhu expressed, The cave training environment is closed and the terrain is complex, simulating the isolation and unknowns of deep space exploration, while also testing our physical and mental limits. This experience deepened our understanding of the importance of collaboration and further honed our emergency response and psychological resilience, accumulating valuable experience for future missions.
In the early stages, to create a training site close to the extreme environment of space, the China Astronaut Research and Training Center conducted on-site inspections of more than ten caves in seven provinces and cities, including Guangxi, Hunan, and Chongqing, comprehensively assessing the training challenges, geological stability, and basic survival environment safety, ultimately selecting a cave in Wulong District as the training site. Regarding training safety assurance, the China Astronaut Research and Training Center developed detailed emergency plans, organized multiple rescue drills with relevant units, and established reliable communication links. On this basis, a 1:1 instructor pre-training was also organized, which not only tested the expected training effects but also verified the effectiveness of training safety measures, fully reflecting the balance between task orientation and safety baseline.
In addition, astronauts also conducted two days of jungle training in each sess
