Since this week, the isolation phase for our 6 analog astronauts has been running in the Ramon Crater in the Negev Desert = “Mars”. This means that contact with the rest of the world for the six of them takes place exclusively via “Earth”, i.e. the Mission Support Centre (MSC) in Innsbruck. To simulate as realistically as possible, communication between “Mars” and “Earth” is delayed by 10 minutes at a time.

On site, the analog astronauts are supported by our on-site support team in the background. However, this team is not allowed to interact with the flight crew in the habitat. For example, the WIFI antennas, which are necessary for communication during outboard missions, are switched on and off by this team, or it helps with the maintenance of rovers. Medics are also on site to intervene in case of emergency.

The first EVA missions took place. This means that our analog astronauts were outside the habitat in their spacesuit simulators and conducted experiments (see our Twitter channel for details). The so-called donning, the putting on of the spacesuit simulator, is not done in a jiffy. It takes a good 2 hours and then everything has to go according to plan. During the entire time of the EVA, from donning to getting out of the suit – thus over many hours – our medical team monitors the vital functions of the flight crew from the MSC.

This week at the MSC in Innsbruck we had film crews reporting on the AMADEE-20 Mars simulation and our work, or will do so in the future. We also received several requests for sound bites from the field, which we are very happy about. Of course, this means more work for our analog astronauts. But professionally, as they are trained, they also do these tasks and send us back audio recordings in the respective languages with their impressions from the field, so that we can serve the media requests.

The human factors and medical team not only make sure that our field crew are mentally and physically well. They also make sure that the mood at the MSC remains just as good despite long working days. Team building with joint dinners, karaoke or hikes contribute greatly to this.

We are now halfway through our 4-week Mars simulation and two more exciting weeks are to come! We will report back. :)

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