The last day of the year is always a day for a retrospective. 2011 was an exciting and intensive year for us.  The pictures underneath are randomly chosen and provide a fragmentary, subjective but a colorful and vital view of our activities.

1 With music accompaniment through the solar system: Eva Hauth and Gernot Groemer escort the audience at the cinema Katsdorf (Upper Austria) on a tour through the solar system. Bianca Neureiter played her self-composed piano piece “Under a starry sky” while showing fascinating pictures on the screen.

2 Visit of research minister Dr. Karlheinz Töchterle: the “Sparkling Science” project “TriPolar”,  the “sister project” of the PolAres program was presented by students to the minister, who was very impressed about their work. (c) Photo: Ministery of Science & Research

3 Maximum concentration necessary: 2 weeks before the begin of the Rio Tino Mars simulation the Mission Control rooms  in Innsbruck are buzzed with activity. Ulrich Luger, one of two suittesters, is highly motivated and works together with the field crew until late at night. (c) Photo: Katja Zanella-Kux

4 Rio Tinto 2011 – Mars Analog Expedition: From 17.- 22. April 2011 the OEWF conducted  a Mars simulation in Southern Spain. In collaboration with scientists from 10 nation and the European Space Agency the simulation was one of the biggest field trips organized by the OEWF. In total 70 space experts & enthusiasts were participating and brought the OEWF a big media coverage. (c) Photo: Paul Santek

5 Souvenir: sand of the Rio Tinto field simulation was brought back in huge amounts. The most important cargo was the data of the experiments.  Scientists started right away with the analysis as soon as they got their probes from the field crew.  The first results were already published at the beginning of September 2011 during  the European Mars Society Convention. (c) Photo: Katja Zanella-Kux

6 Young University on tour: first stop: Rapoldi park in Innsbruck.  On a wonderful sunny day young explorers had a bright choice of activities: observing solar spots together with Julia Heuritsch, steering Mars rover “Dignity” or building water rockets. A great campaign!

7 Unicamp 2011:  young space talents had in 2011 again the possibility to spend a week with scientists from the university Innsbruck. In the astrophysics group, this year a design project had to be completed. The challenge: plan a mission to Saturn’s ice moon Enceladus.

8 Passepartout Sherpa: Michael Taraba and Norbert Frischauf discuss just short before the launch some details. Together with the ISU (International Space University) a stratospheric balloon, for the first time in the configuration Sherpa, was launched in August.  In the “Sherpa” configuration an important step was taken to send a separate experiment payload, designed and build by the ISU students into 30 km height.

9 Mail from the sky: In Semriach in memoriam Ing. Friedrich Schmiedl, who launched 80 years ago the first mail rocket, 3 anniversairy launches coordinated by Peter Haslinger (OEWF Vienna) were conducted. The rocket successfully transported 333 souvenir pieces (50 year old letters). (c) Photo: Stefan Hauth

10 Prize for Excellence in Public Engagement with Planetary Science: this prize, donated by Europlanet, was given 2011 to the OEWF.  Gernot Groemer took over the prize in Nantes and inspired the audience during the award giving ceremony.(c) Photo: Lee Pullen, EPSC / Science Office.

11 Eye in the Sky 2011:  After the successful “Eye in the Sky” year 201o the program was prolonged into 2011. In upper Austria Other Coser inspired more than 1000 (!) students about the topic Earth Observation.

12 Cosmos – the exploration of the world: 2011 ended fulminant.  With a new show about the adventures of the early explorers up to the space ages – planned by Alexander Soucek – the OEWF inspired more than 800 visitors in Salzburg and Linz. (c) Photo: Katja Zanella-Kux

 

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