Austrian Space Forum releases Announcement of Opportunity for a Mars Analog Mission in 2015

Photo: OeWF (Katja Zanella-Kux)

After 11 previous field missions, the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) is inviting researchers to submit for the upcoming AMADEE-15 mission. During a 1-2 week field mission, various aspects of human-robotic partnerships in Mars exploration will be tested. The deadline for submitting experiments is 06Oct2014, followed by a peer review. Although the final site has not been chosen yet, the test region will be in western Austria, including challenging and icy as well as flat and dry alpine terrains for engineering tests.

“During the last years, we have seen a remarkable increase in the quality with respect to scientific and engineering proposal quality”,

Gernot Groemer, the PolAres Programme Officer, stated,

“and we’re putting a lot of effort into providing a first-class mission for conducting cutting-edge science and technology in Mars analog research.”

The mission data will also be incorporated in the OeWF Multi-mission Science Data Archive to enable future a-posteriori science to be conducted. Two research-grade Mars spacesuit simulators will be available also allowing for biomedical and engineering research proposals. A freshly trained team of Flight Operators, Flight Planners and a dedicated Remote Science Support team will be staffing the Mission Support Center.

Also, the OeWF invites high school and university students to submit to a “Junior Researchers Programme” to let them experience the full life-cycle of a scientific or engineering experiment: From formulating a scientific hypothesis, instrument and workflow development, data analysis and interpretation to publication.

More information:
Announcement of Opportunity

Reports from previous missions:

• MARS2013 Mission Report
• Dachstein Mars Simulation 2012 Mission Report
• Rio Tinto 2011 Mission Report