My name is Elin Eriksson and I am studying M.Sc. Space Engineering at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. My first two weeks as an intern at the Austrian Space Forum has mostly consisted of reading article after article, and document and document. It is important to have a grasp of the entirety of the project and the environment it takes place in before focusing on the analysis and validation of one particular subsystem.

I have up until now primarily been focusing on familiarizing myself with the environment and topology of Mars. Although I still have a lot to learn about the red planet, I am starting to get an understanding of Mars’ history and why the manned space flights are of importance to enable further investigation. I have also started reading in on the subsystems of the space suit prior to SERENITY, the Aouda space suit. This is to get an understanding of the evolution and development of the SERENITY suit, and also to investigate the trade-offs.

During my time here I have also had the opportunity to sit in on two Serenity spacesuit simulator review meetings, one in Braunau and one in Innsbruck. The Critical Design Review (CDR) is approaching and the different teams are progressing very well with their prototypes and tests.

CDR in Braunau

My colleague Nina Sejkora and I went to an elementary school here in Innsbruck last week to talk to the children about to the Solar System. They were very excited and eager to share their thoughts and the knowledge of the planets that they already possessed. It was great to be able to see the early awareness of space of such young minds.

Education activity at an elementary school in Innsbruck

Author: Elin Eriksson