My name is Paulina Eknor, I am a student from Luleå University of Technology, studying the Master Programme in Space Engineering with alignment of aeronautics. I came into contact with the Austrian Space Forum, OeWF, through the head of my program in Luleå as I was looking for a place to do my master thesis and wanted to go abroad. As I got curious on what they were working on I decided to apply, and here I am!

As with any internship my time here started out with reading – a lot. About Mars as a planet, about the different parts of SERENITY (the new space suit simulator), about OeWFs earlier projects and as I got familiar with these my supervisor gave me my topic. My assignment is to do the AIV (Assembly Integration and Verification) for SERENITY, in practice this means writing testing instructions for the general requirements and overseeing the assembly of the suit. This is what has taken the majority of my time in the past few weeks and I must say it is quite the challenge.

Even though a “normal” day at the office is spent in front of a screen researching or writing, there is so much more to being an intern at the OeWF. I have, since I got here in early November, had the privilege to join an amazing group of bright people that are more than happy to share their experiences. I arrived just in time to join them in their search for new analog astronauts for the B- and C- selection. During these events I met the most extraordinary people, and got to see how these selections are done. From about 100 applicants only 8 where chosen in the end.

Another experience I got to join in was a trip to ESA, to their astronaut training center, where we were to show the Aouda suit for a visiting class of students. In the hall where we displayed Aouda ESA had two replicas of the Columbus modules and the entrance from the ISS which I was allowed to go into. Now during the spring I also attended the space themed ball in Wien that the OeWF arranged.

Shortly said, moving here was a good choice! No matter where you look you can see mountains reaching up towards the sky just behind the city borders. The only thing that was missing in the office was the Swedish way of “fika” so together with Elin, the other Swedish intern, we’ve started educating them.