Österreichisches Weltraum Forum Austrian Space Forum
The third day of the International Aeronautical Congress in Bremen began with a historic moment. The DLR Mascot lander successfully touched soil on the asteroid Ryugu at 03:58 a.m CEST and 1 hour later the signal of the successful landing was received at the DLR Mascot control center.
#IAC2018 exact landing time was 03:58 & confirmation was received around 05 am. Lander works well all systems are in good shape. #DLR has another 12 hours to do the science. First move "hoping" event was sent says Prof. Dittus #InvolvingEveryone pic.twitter.com/dkVcL672aY
— Austr. Space Forum (@oewf) October 3, 2018
At the DLR press conference at 10:00 am in the morning, Pascale Ehrenfreund, head of the DLR executive board, congratulate the whole team to this successful mission and pointed out, that this mission couldn’t have been done with their partners. The Mascot lander is part of the Hayabusa2 mission were DLR, JAXA and CNES are cooperating.
#IAC2018 P. Ehrenfreund today is a historic day as #Mascot successfully on #Ryugu. Such mission can only be done with partners. She hopes for a long lasting partnerships & txs everybody pic.twitter.com/dygoaOayMK
— Austr. Space Forum (@oewf) October 3, 2018
#IAC2018 Ehrenfreund points to the landing site on the asteroid mockup. The #AsteroidLanding site is named "Alice in Wonderland" pic.twitter.com/5VDqrRxdMX
— Austr. Space Forum (@oewf) October 3, 2018
To continue the good partnership CNES, DLR and JAXA signed the contract for the “MMX” mission, a sample return mission the Martian moons.
#IAC2018 @DLR_de @JAXA_en & @CNES announcing a new mission #MMX to Martian moons in 2024 as a sample return mission. Wow great news #InvolvingEveryone pic.twitter.com/kIUFqnBRan
— Austr. Space Forum (@oewf) October 3, 2018
The morning continued with a professional visit to the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) were we got an exclusive tour by Dr. Vögele. The DFKI is known for its research with robots and especially it’s motors. They research in various different fields from underwater robots, automotive & autonomous cars to space robots. Their facilities include amongst other a huge 23 m x 19 m x 8 m water test basin filled with salt water and a space exploration hall. Both facilities are open or external researchers as well. We got to see a glimpse of their research projects, like the Europe-Explorer, were the concept it that the robot can melt through ice and then dives into the ocean on Europa’s moon. Or the SherpaTT robot, which is a hybrid walking and driving rover and weighs about 150 kg. The SherpaTT will go in November on a test campaign in Morocco.
Dr. Vögele explains the Europa-Explorer
Europa-Explorer
OeWF group photo at DFKI
Today was also the public day at the IAC were the exhibition was open to the general public. The highlight of the day, was the in-flight call to the ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst. About 8,000 people fit in the hall and was almost full. Amazing to see so many people cheering to Alexander Gerst’s answers from space.
#IAC2018 full house in the ÖVB Arena in Bremen for the live call to #ISS #InvolvingEveryone pic.twitter.com/1JtfE9u6Sd
— Olivia Haider ?? (@olidax) October 3, 2018
Audience at ISS in-flight call
in-flight call to Alexander Gerst
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