During one of the hottest weekends of 2019, a total of 23 space professionals and enthusiasts journeyed to Innsbruck to take part in the AMBT course given by the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF). An AMBT course, or Analog Mission Basic Training course in long, is a course that aims to give the participants general know-how of an analog mission and a taste for the real thing. Analog mission are simulations of a planetary human mission on the Moon, Mars etc., often taking place in hostile desert environments to mimic the respective planetary terrain and extremes. OeWF, as you may know since you ventured this webpage, is an independent space forum that is built upon voluntary work of all sorts. Analog astronauts, support team members, flight directors, flight controllers… Everyone has their task and their responsibility, and everyone is important. I think it is precisely this. The enthusiasm, the joy of discovering and the curiousness in the intercultural meetings, the team effort that makes OeWF stand out. From the moment we arrived we felt welcomed, heard, seen, and challenged.

The first day was mostly introductions. Introductions of the people behind this course and OeWF, the people behind the experiments, and the people participating this course. Although the heat cut the day short, many interesting conversations were held that continued the next day and the third. The second day was focused more on the different divisions of the OeWF. FC, FP…. The acronyms were many, but one found oneself navigating them easily quite quickly. As a challenge after the flight planning lecture, we got to plan a day for two analog astronauts, which was very hard but equally as fun as intriguing. Before lunch we had a lecture with one of the analog astronauts from the class of 2015, Kartik Kumar. He gave us an idea of what life as an analog astronaut was really like and what was expected of them during and in between missions. Afterwards we got an insight of the science and experiments performed during the missions, which is one of the main reasons they are done: to simulate experiments and refine the procedures. In the afternoon, prior to dinner, we got to go to the headquarters of OeWF. The Aouda spacesuit simulator was of course the main attraction, and it was fascinating seeing it for real after have read about it in the pre-course examination. The AMBT course was planned on the same weekend as an analog astronaut training block, which allowed for us to meet most of the new analog astronaut class of 2019 during the dinner in the evening. The third day brought on some mission structures but also a biomedical lecture. Due to the environment, climate and the Aouda suit itself, the analog astronauts are put under some severe physical and emotional stress. Doctors are always keeping an eye on them to make sure they are and stay healthy during the mission, as safety is of uttermost importance. Another thing of extreme importance is effective communication.  All OeWF mission have implemented a ten-minute time delay between “Mars” and the Mission Support Center on “Earth”. This makes direct communication impossible. During our own simulation we saw how quickly things can escalate, and this was not even when it mattered and without any time delay! The stress was real. With room for improvement we wrapped up the course, and I think it left us all wanting more.

One very inspiring thing I take with me from this course is that no matter the background, it is never impossible to become involved. In our group we had a diversity that was beautiful. Some had worked in non-space-related areas for years, while others were still sitting in a university bench either with space-related studies, or as myself with medicine. Some already had established or were building skyrocketing careers in the space industry. The competences were mixed up and everyone had a place in this puzzle.

Author: Melanie Larsson, AMBT participant 2019