On the last day of the year, we look back on a year full of space activities and research projects. The launch of the ADLER-1 cubesat in January 2022 was certainly a milestone at OeWF: For the first time, hardware built by OeWF is in space collecting valuable data on space debris.

1 On January 13, 2022, ADLER-1, a 30x30x10 cm small satellite launched into space aboard Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket. It carries the APID hardware built by OeWF to detect the smallest space debris particles (< 2 mm) – a satellite project in red-white-red.

2  In preparation for future Mars analog missions, our OeWF delegation met with the leadership of the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) for exploratory talks in Cairo in February. (c) EgSA

3 In the front row of Research: At the AMADEE-20 Science Workshop in Vienna, researchers from Europe and Israel discussed the initial findings of the October 2021 AMADEE-20 Mars simulation.

4 Impact of space debris particles detected! The first signal registered by the APID instrument on board the cubesat “ADLER-1” comes from an extraterrestrial object or micrometeoroid with a velocity of at least 50,000 km/h.

5 Within the LaScil Erasmus+ project we organized a teaching methodology workshop for European teacher*. Highlights were the visit of the OeWF space suit laboratory incl. getting to know the two space suit simulators as well as the visit of the VEGA observatory Haus der Natur in Salzburg (photo).

6 OeWF as you know it: This year, numerous children’s university and school activities took place again. Our OeWF team visited various universities, universities of applied sciences and schools. The picture shows the Children’s University event at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz.

7 This year, our analog astronauts and the GOST team (supporting team on site for Mars simulations) came together for a training in Innsbruck. Besides theoretical knowledge transfer, several donnings of the space suit simulator Aouda were performed. These trainings are important to be able to use the learned knowledge in future planetary analog missions.

8 OeWF said THANK YOU to outgoing UNOOSA Director: Dr. Rudolf Albrecht awarded Prof. Dr. Simonetta di Pippo the “Token of Appreciation”, a first-time OeWF certificate, thanking her for her special support during our analog missions.

9 After the success of ADLER-1, the follow-up project “ADLER-2” was tinkered with and built at full speed this year. Marvin Schumacher, ÖWF space engineer discusses details of the APID-2 instrument with one of his colleagues here in the OeWF lab.

10 The Polarstar Award – THE Austrian space award – was given this year to Prof. Dr. Pascale Ehrenfreund. The award for people who are enthusiastic about space was presented by OeWF board member Reinhard Tlustos at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Paris.

11 An OeWF delegation visited Armenia in November as another potential candidate country for future Mars analog missions. In addition to visiting potential analog sites, the program also included initial talks with official representatives of the Armenian government.

12 For the ESA project “DEAR” one of the most important experiments was carried out in December together with our project partner OHB: The interaction between robotic arm covered with the textile of the Aouda spacesuit glove and lunar regolith in a controlled environment. This made it possible to verify whether the strategies developed as part of the project help to efficiently remove dust again.

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