Our 6 analog astronauts have already completed their 2nd week in isolation in the Ramon crater in Israel. They are only allowed to leave the habitat with our two spacesuit simulators and therefore the EVAs (Extra vehicular ) are very popular.

As the temperatures in Israel are a bit higher than expected, the EVAs have been started earlier this week. This means for the teams in Israel but also on “Earth”, i.e. at the Mission Support Center in Innsbruck, early rising at 05:30 a.m. in the morning. Donning the space suit simulator takes at least 2 hours.

During a extravehicular activity, various experiments such as Micropotential, GEOS or the Share Experiment were carried out. The analog astronauts are supported and guided by the habitat via radio link. This way they hear what they have to do in a certain experiment. We have an example of such a radio communication for the SHARE experiment here (Robert Wild in the suit, Joao Lousada at the SciOps console):

Experiments are also conducted in the habitat. This week, for example, the VFReFAST experiment was completed. The analog astronauts have to perform an ultrasound examination on their colleagues. The aim here was to test whether this examination can be carried out with the appropriate equipment, even with minimal prior medical knowledge.

At the Mission Support Center in Innsbruck, many teams had a shift change this week. In addition, the focus was on forwarding the scientific data obtained to the respective experiment teams, as well as supporting our analog astronauts with problems with experiments as best as possible with a 10-minute time delay.

In addition, at MSC we were also able to successfully remotely control the Rovo2 electric rover in Israel for the first time – over a distance of about 4,000 km.

On Friday afternoon, we had a visit from young researchers as part of an education center course. They asked us many questions about space and were then allowed to launch water rockets themselves. This was great fun for the cute young explorers!

More information about the experiments:

• amadee20.oewf.org

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