Holstein, we have a problem?

It has been more than 50 years since NASA has landed astronauts on the moon, a streak they aim to end in 2026 as part of the Artemis III mission.

This ambitious endeavor has been years in the making and has required extreme preparations that have long-since been underway.

But that doesn’t mean the mission isn’t without some snags.

NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Andre Douglas simulated several “moonwalks” in the northern Arizona desert, leading to a series of inspiring and admittedly amusing photos released by the space agency this week.

Donning 70 pound, equipment-laden backpacks instead of the pressurized suits they will wear in space, the pair of astronauts simulated what they might expect upon landing on the moon, giving them a peek behind the curtain of what life in their infamously movement-restricting spacesuits will be like.

They also went so far as to simulate sunrise and sunset on the moon by using an extremely bright spotlight.

On the Moon’s southern pole, the Sun “moves across the horizon, skimming the surface like a flashlight lying on a table,” as NASA explains.

“Night simulations show us how tough it is for the astronauts to navigate in the dark,” said NASA mineralogist Cherie Achilles in a statement. “It’s pretty eye-opening.”

The astronauts were presented with at least one challenge they won’t face on the moon – some bovine onlookers who wandered over out of curiosity and spent some time taking in the scene.

“There are, of course, no cows on the Moon,” NASA said, tongue-in-cheek. “But there is a region, called Marius Hills, that geologically resembles this Arizona volcanic field. Like the Arizona site, Marius Hills was shaped by ancient volcanic eruptions, so the composition of rocks at the two locations is similar.”

Though there is a long way to go before this mission goes from the practice fields to space, the practice is paying off for the participants.

“My experience in Arizona was incredible,” astronaut Andre Douglas said. “I worked with several teams, explored an exotic landscape, and got a taste of what it’s like to be on a mission with a crew.”

Arizona made a good stand-in for the mission for a variety of reasons.

“This ‘landing site’ was a good analog for the types of small changes in regolith astronauts will look for at the lunar South Pole,” said Lauren Edgar, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., who co-led the science team for the simulation.

The next step will be to address a pretty significant hurdle: no astronaut has yet launched into space onboard the agency’s Orion spacecraft.

And to get down to the surface, NASA is hoping to leverage SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, which has only made it to orbit once without any crews on board and has yet to land on Earth, let alone the Moon.

At least this close en-cow-nter made for a good practice session, and a once-in-a-lifetime photo op!

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