written by Renana Bruckstein and Arfor Houwman, Analog Astronauts class of 2026

When you are on a mission – whether in space, in an extreme environment on Earth, or even in a high-performance setting in everyday life – you have to know, rely on, and trust your team. A team’s ability to work as one coordinated unit is what can make the difference between success and failure, and sometimes even between life and death. So how do you turn a group of individuals into a team?

In June 2026, after an intensive and demanding selection process, the Austrian Space Forum (ÖWF) selected six individuals from across Europe to become the new Analog Astronaut Class. Since space exploration is highly interdisciplinary, so is the team that was selected: backgrounds in physics, aerospace engineering, medicine, and research in fields such as quantum physics, lasers, space radiation, space physiology, palaeomimicry, and more. Different professional backgrounds, different countries of origin, different cultures, but all with one thing in common: a passion for exploration, for space, and for science.

The fact that we were selected already suggested that each of us brings valuable experience from our own field, that we all have unique life stories, strong social skills, and the ability to perform under pressure. Still, for the missions of the Austrian Space Forum, which means living and working together in a Mars-like environment for weeks at a time, we need to become much more than six capable individuals. We need to become a team.

To achieve this, our intensive training blocks include, alongside many hours of theory covering different space-related subjects, countless activities that bring us together: regular morning runs, long days in the classroom, many hours of donning and doffing our spacesuits, intensive first-aid response training, professional firefighting exercises, outdoor camping in the Alps and the list goes on.

One thing that surprised us most was how naturally this process happened. We did have dedicated sessions on human factors and teamwork, but it was during the training that we noticed how these ideas translated into real life. Somewhere between helping each other with a spacesuit, sweating together doing push-ups and sprints, solving problems under time pressure, or laughing over dinner after a long day of training, we could see a group of individuals gradually turning into a team.

It is fascinating to watch how, over time, we get to know one another better: what each of us likes or dislikes, what makes someone smile, what makes us all laugh until we almost cry, and – what occasionally drives us crazy. The quieter personalities begin to open up, while the more extroverted among us naturally step back to give others space. With every training block, we discover new sides of each other and hear extraordinary stories about the journeys that brought us here.

Week by week, we become a more cohesive group. We challenge each other, support each other, and laugh … a lot! Going through demanding situations together, overcoming challenges, and sharing experiences that not many people get to have slowly transforms six individuals into one team. A team that is preparing to contribute to the future of human Mars exploration: the ÖWF Analog Astronaut Class of 2026.