My name is Titouan Beyly, I am a French engineering student at ESTACA where I am studying aeronautics. I am part of my school’s rocketry club. I learned of the OeWF internship possibilities from our school job offer website. From there, I went to the OeWF website and read about there different project. They all look amazing so I apply for an internship.

I arrived in Innsbruck in early May 2025 and did a four-month internship at the OeWF. During this internship, I worked on the preparatory work for the World Biggest Analog (WBA). It is an event where habitats from all over the world will do experiments in the same time frame. It will begin in early October and will last for two weeks. The WBA will have 17 habitats and the MICO-Vienna which is the coordination center for the WBA. All the data collected will be used for the future analog mission and Mars crewed mission.

On the first day of my internship, just after onboarding, I was taken in a meeting with one of the habitats to do an introductory meeting between their habitats and the OeWF team. It is something, to have a meeting where you don’t know about the project and being thrusted into it without any prior knowledge. Then it was smooth sailing from there.

One of my tasks for the WBA was to be an expert on the communication tools that we are going to be using for the MICO-VIE. They are made by the same company (GMV) that made the tool for communicating with the Columbus module of the ISS. After using the tools, I made a small presentation to the team who made the tools for us to present to them with some of the changes that we would like to see in the tools and ask clarifying questions.

For the good function of the MICO-VIE, Margot and I needed to create the SOPs and the role sheet for the different functions. For the SOPs, we used the SOPs from AMADEE-18 Mission as a base and the opinion of previous flight directors. The SOPs will guide the MICO-VIE staff in case of a contingency and provide a clear overview of their day-to-day work. For the role sheet, we used the one from Explore mission. And the role sheet goes into detail on the daily and weekly tasks of the MICO-VIE staff.

For the good unfolding of the WBA, we needed to have preliminary meetings with the habitats where we would check the connection to their habitat and the progress of the construction of the habitat for the new ones. This gave us a unique perspective on the work ethic and the mentality of people in other cultures since we work with people from all over the world.

Another task that I was assigned was redesigning the helmet ring for the Aouda helmets. One of the constraints for the new suit is weight. First, I recreated the current neck ring with all its parts in a CAD software. With this model, I changed the material to the current one where I saw that the helmet parts were 90% of helmet weight. So, I changed the material of the parts to see what material could be used. Another consideration was how we would make the neck ring. Finally, we concluded that PLA was the best option since it is 3D printable and light.

My time at the OeWF could not have been so amazing without the other volunteers and employees/interns. And without them my time in Innsbruck would not have been the same. I would like to thank Gernot Grömer, director of the OeWF for his guidance and advice, as well as Leonie Hahn, Margot Girard, Marcus Ake, Tamara Crepuljarevic, Carolina Messner, Elias Brassé-Luxbauer, Leo Affenzeller and Daniel Antala, my coworkers, for their help, friendship, and warm welcome at the OeWF.

Read also Margot’s blog post

Author: Titouan Beyly