Attend the IGLUNA Field Campaign, which marks the end of a year’s work by more than 220 students from all over the world on the topic “A space habitat with remote operations”!

Over the past academic year, 12 student teams from 9 universities have developed innovative technologies for the future of space exploration and the improvement of life on Earth. They will gather online and in Lucerne (Switzerland) from the 16-25 July 2021 to test and demonstrate their projects to the global community.

Innovative technologies for space and the Earth

IGLUNA students come from various universities and fields of study. Through this diversity, they manage to cover several research topics necessary for the long-term human survival on another celestial body such as the Moon or Mars. The following technologies have been developed during IGLUNA 2021 and will be tested during the Field Campaign:

Life support systems

• Automated structure to grow vegetables automatically and sustainably on the Moon
• “Lunar Operative Outpost for the Production and Storage of Microgreens” and interactive Virtual Reality simulation of a Lunar greenhouse
• Rover for the exploration, extraction and processing of Lunar water ice
• Life-sustaining module, enabling plants and biological samples to survive in low temperatures.

Architecture and conception

• Winding machine for fibres production from lunar ground, automated and working under vacuum conditions
• Lightweight, flexible, stable and inflatable dome structure for a habitat on the Moon or in an extreme environment

Navigation and communication

• Collaborative and autonomous drone and rover to explore unknown and challenging environments
• Lunar navigation helmet (Augmented Reality) and weather box
• Swarm of highly miniaturized mobile platforms based on C-shaped legs for a vast area sensors deployment and exploration activities
• Self-organized swarm of robots for the exploration and mapping of planetary environments
• Rover for solar sintering on the Lunar surface

Power system

• Complete and holistic power system for the Moon

A Field Campaign despite the travel restrictions

Based on each country’s situation with regards to the COVID crisis, each team decides if they are able to come to Lucerne to complete their project or if they would rather join online from home. The teams travelling to Switzerland will set up their project at the Peak of Mount Pilatus above Lucerne and remotely operate them from the control room in the Verkehrshaus – Swiss Museum of Transport. The infrastructure will be installed for the occasion in the Aviation Hall by the company Rhein-Tec.

IGLUNA and the Austrian Space Forum

The Austrian Space Forum has been supporting the IGLUNA platform in different ways. OeWF has offered the opportunity to several IGLUNA students to participate in the “Analog Mission Basic Training” during the past two years. This course provides solid insights to the responsibilities and processes at the Mission Support Center, field operations and about Mars research in general. The IGLUNA students have expressed how useful these workshops have been in preparation for their tests and operations planning for the IGLUNA Field Campaign.

OeWF representatives have also participated in the IGLUNA expert panel to give feedback to the student teams during the project review milestones. The experts provided valuable inputs and helped better shape the student projects. The added value for the student teams is not only from the technical transfer of knowledge, but also the soft skills and networking obtained through this experience.

Find more information on IGLUNA and join the Field Campaign from the 16-25 July 2021 on https://space-innovation.ch/igluna/field-campaign/.

Author: IGLUNA Project Team