More than 100 pages on Austrian Space Forum’s 2018-mission in Oman

On November 12 2020 the prestigious Astrobiology Journal released its special edition on the simulated Mars mission “AMADEE-18”. Its collection of six papers offers insight into carefully chosen experiments of this 25-nations mission, highlighting selected findings of this expedition.

Gernot Grömer, Director of the Austrian Space Forum: ”This special edition of Astrobiology Journal marks a milestone in our commitment to share our findings with the scientific community. Through simulating Mars missions and subsequently publishing their results the Austrian Space Forum has dedicated itself to further preparations of the human exploration of the Red Planet.  And we are already preparing our next mission: in October 2021 we will send our crew of analog astronauts to Israel to conduct 16 new experiments.“

About AMADEE-18

Selected findings of AMADEE-18 are published in the current edition of Astrobiology Journal. From February 1 to 28, 2018, the Austrian Space Forum lead the AMADEE-18 mission in the Dhofar region in the Sultanate of Oman. In cooperation with the Oman Astronomical Society and research teams from 25 nations the Austrian Space Forum simulated a human-robotic Mars expedition conducting 19 experiments relevant to astrobiology, engineering disciplines, geoscience, operations research, and human factors.  

This field mission was designed to accomplish the following:

• Provide an opportunity to study equipment, procedures and workflows under Mars analog conditions with humans in the loop
• Present a platform for assessment of life-detection and geoscientific techniques, terrain analyses for rovers and an increase in the situational awareness of remote support teams
• Study the test site as a model region for Martian deserts and extreme life
• Serve as an outreach platform to enhance the visibility of planetary sciences.

About the current Astrobiology edition

https://home.liebertpub.com/publications/astrobiology/99

This special edition of Astrobiology Journal was published November 12 2020 and features a selected number of papers particularly dealing with:

• the architecture and scientific framework of the mission
• Human factors’ impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of human crews
• Impact of mission complexity and fidelity on workflow and time efficiency
• Testing workflows and their interplay for the geochemical and organic analysis of Martian samples
• Reliability and efficiency of vision based unmanned aerial vehicle navigation (drones)
• Testing subsurface radar sounding

About AMADEE-20
The Austrian Space Forum’s next mission will take its crew of six analog astronauts to Israel in October 2021. This simulation of a human exploration of Mars will be hosted by the Israel Space Agency and conducted in cooperation with D-MARS and science teams from 9 countries. The crew in Israel will be supported by a Mission Support Center in Austria, mimicking the “ground segment” of an actual Mars mission, including operations teams, flight planners, remote science support and the infrastructure necessary to coordinate the complex set of as much as 16 experiments in the fields of engineering, geoscience and human factors. For more information see: https://oewf.org/portfolio/amadee-20/

About the Austrian Space Forum
The Austrian Space Forum is one of the world’s leading institutions conducting Mars analog missions, thus paving the way for the future human exploration of the Red Planet. Experts from a broad variety of disciplines as well as the spaceflight sector constitute the core of the OeWF’s continued endeavors that on a regular basis include national and international institutions from science and industry to work at the cutting edge of scientific research. On doing so the Austrian Space Forum is using its excellent contacts to opinion leaders, politics and media to further and internationally propagate Austrian top-level research. The Austrian Space Forum also contributes significantly to inspiring and educating young people in the sectors of science, technology and engineering. The OeWF offers internships to students and pupils, its experts supervise scientific papers on a regular basis. www.oewf.org

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