Patch design: Matthew Acevski
Asclepios VI
After five successful missions, Asclepios is returning to Sasso San Gottardo with ten analogue astronauts from around the world to execute its sixth mission. They will be spending over 2 weeks in isolation with the Mission Control Centre to oversee the entire operation. Not only will the mission bring exciting new features, including crew rotations, Asclepios VI also brought forward a new association structure for a successful mission.
The New Asclepios Structure
• With the organisation surpassing 100 officers around the world, a new layer of leadership was added – the Vice Presidents.
• All the in-person hands on engineering aspects have all been reorganised under Asclepios Lab, which is based in EPFL.
Meet the Team
Executive Level
President – Matthew Acevski 🇬🇧
Mission Director – Joseph Hong 🇰🇷
Mission Director – Ambre Bexter 🇬🇧
Vice President (VP) Level
Administration – Luca Chiara 🇮🇹
Operations – Nathan Pili 🇬🇧
Research/Science – Mateus Magalhães 🇧🇷
Technology – Pedro Rosado 🇵🇹
Astronaut Programme – Michelle Pahud 🇨🇭
Asclepios Lab – Melani Cvetkovska 🇲🇰
Our Teams
Executive Team
Matthew Acevski & Joseph Hong & Ambre Bexter
The project leaders are the chief executives for the mission. They mentour, coordinate and support all the Heads with their teams’ activities.
Astronaut Team
Team Head: Ella Ganzer & Pedro Rosado
The astronauts team handles everything related to the astronaut crew of the Asclepios missions. They are responsible for every step of the recruitment and selection of the crew. Once the crew is recruited, its training (survival, science, communication protocols, teamwork) is their responsibility.
Science Team
Team Head: Avin Mohebi
The Science team interfaces between Asclepios and our scientific collaborators. Each year, the Science team puts out a Call for Projects to solicit proposals from academia and industry for projects to test in the Asclepios mission. Science team members collaborate with Principal Investigators throughout the year to implement their experiments in the mission. The Science team also plans and implements their own experiments..
Communication Team
Team Head: –
The Communications Team shares our work at Asclepios with the rest of the world! This team is responsible for managing the Asclepios social media and website, as well as designing team merchandise and mission and team patches.
Mission Assurance Team
Team Head: Joachim Harding & Max Grossman
The Design Team manages the internal design of our analog lunar base. They work on the base layout, airlock design, spacesuit design and maintenance, and the launch simulation, along with other projects.
Human Resources Team
Team Head: Elisabetta Pugi
The Recruitment Team performs the recruitment of new officers for all the roles in the association, along with the selection of the astronaut crew, and intensive four-phases process with hundreds of applications. In parallel to recruitment, the team also handles internal HR activities, comprising of onboarding new members, investigating team satisfactions, and many others.
Asclepios Lab Team
Team Head: Melani Cvetkovska
As an EPFL association, Asclepios Head Quarter is located in Lausanne, at EPFL. The team handles specific logistics, mainly related to in-person events, equipment storage and repairs, and coordinating with the university.
Finance Team
Team Head: –
The finance team ensures that Asclepios meets our budgetary requirements in order to make the mission happen each year. This team is also responsible for sponsorship.
Legal Team
Team Head: –
The Legal team is primarily responsible for reviewing contracts and MoUs with our partners and ensuring legal compliance as a nonprofit association in Switzerland.
MCC Team
Team Head: Iyarra Sheine
The Mission Control Centre (MCC) team works throughout the year to train the mission control officers who will support the astronauts during their mission. They also develop the software and procedures that are used in the mission control.
Medical Team
Team Head: Vivien Simon
The Medical Team works to ensure the health, well-being, and safety of Asclepios analog astronauts during trainings and the mission. They manage astronaut nutrition and physical preparation, as well as leading medical and psychological training for the crew. During the mission, Medical Officers from this team serve in the Mission Control Centre to monitor crew health.
Ethics Team
Team Head: Christos Charalambous
The ethics team works with our science Principal Investigator partners to help them apply for ethical approval in Switzerland. They also work with the medical team to ensue that the astronauts’ health data is protected.
Our Previous Missions
Asclepios IV
The analog mission Asclepios IV, launched in Summer 2024, was a lunar base simulation. The astronauts were students that went through extensive training to master the successful execution of the selected projects and experiments. Upon successful completion of the trainings, six astronauts spent two weeks isolated inside a simulated lunar base, in Switzerland, and took part in extravehicular activities (EVAs).
Asclepios III
Asclepios III, our third analogue mission, was set in a Lunar South Pole environment. A crew of international analogue astronauts were placed in isolation and carried out experiments and EVAs to explore the challenges of space medicine. The mission itself took place at Sasso San Gottardo, Switzerland.
Asclepios II
Asclepios II, our second analogue mission, was set in a Lunar South Pole environement. A crew of six international analogue astronauts were placed in isolation while they carry out experiments and EVAs to explore the challenges in the search for water. The mission took place at Sasso San Gottardo, a Swiss world war era fortress in the Airolo municipality of Switzerland.
Asclepios I
As the first mission of the Asclepios project, Asclepios I laid the foundation on which the following missions will be built. It served to accomplish the project’s goals as it demonstrated the viability of student led analogue missions. This mission served the purpose of testing the structure chosen for an Asclepios analogue mission but also the project structure itself. It was also oriented towards an ecological and sustainable approach. This was underlined by multiple choices ranging from alimentation to the construction of base structures.