Welcome on the blog!
Discover the latest news linked with the mission.. and more!
The Asclepios project has been granted the MAKE status from EPFL. This means that we are now recognized as an interdisciplinary project supported by EPFL. This is a great step for us because it means that our dedication and our work fulfills the goal we had in terms of education but also gives us more access to laboratories and academic recognition.
The MAKE projects are supposed to bring students from a lot of different academic backgrounds together to work on something that gives them new perspectives as well as help to develop skills that will serve them throughout their professional lives. To be one of such projects means that we’ve succeeded on the student aspect and emboldens us to give our very best for the scientific aspect that represents our mission.
Late October, the astronauts had an intense week-end with two different workshops.
On Saturday, Marc Toussaint presented the global structure of ESA and brought knowledge on various aspects linked to space, astronauts, human spaceflights, rockets and launchers, but also on more politicals and management topics.
On Sunday, Céline Renaud taught the Genesis crew to speak in public and tell stories. She came with tools and strategies not to stay wordless. Each one was able to train, while telling a story or training to answer questions to a journalist.
At the beginning of October and in respect of the barrier gestures, Asclepios celebrated the arrival of its new members during an integration weekend.
All members were able to meet in person or by teleconference and get to know each other through fun activities such as “2 truths 1 lie” or a morning jog.
This weekend was an opportunity to present the structure of the different teams and the functioning of the association but also to meet our mentors such as Julia Schmale from EERL, Emmanuelle David from eSpace, the explorer Alban Michon or Claude Nicollier, Swiss astronaut.
On the last day, everyone was able to try out the different roles of the future Mission Control Center through different scenarios featuring our astronauts who were facetious.
Do you want to take part in a space mission simulation?
As a new school year starts, the Asclepios project has opened this year’s recruitment sesion. We are looking for studen who are passionate about space and willing to work with us to make the first student-led analogue mission a reality.
A zoom meeting has been organized for those that were able to attend on the 23rd of September 2020. It allowed students from EPFL and elsewhere to ask questions and discover the project.
If you are interested in joining, you can do so through the Become a member page. On this page you will also find the descritpion of the positions offered within Asclepios.
For additional questions, please contact asclepios@epfl.ch .
During the month of August we held a Call for projects for our mission Ascepios I. It was an invitation for actors within the space industry to send us project to try and test during the mission. The call is now over and the selection is underway,
The call was open to all laboratories, start-ups, companies, and students. Registration was done via the website on the dedicated Call for projects page.
They needed to submit an outline proposal at first, through a standardized application document that was provided to help shape their proposal. At the end of the call, on september the 15th 2020, we have choosen which proposols suit our missions needs. Selected projects will spark a collaboration between Asclepios and the project’s team which will lead to it being included into one of the Asclepios missions.
If you need some information for a future proposal in the next call, the Call’s page explains it all but you can also contact us.
Date: 15/09/2020
After searching during this summer for a partner to host the Asclepios I mission, we are pleased to announce that it will take place within the infrastructure of the new project partner, Nagra at the Grimsel Test Site (GTS).
Nagra (National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste) is the competence centre for radioactive waste disposal in Switzerland. Its mandate is to find solutions that guarantee the long-term safety of humans and the environment. Nagra’s test site at Grimsel inspired the “exploration” theme of Asclepios I.
As a matter of fact, the Grimsel Test Site will provide an exceptional playground for simulating the lunar environment and conducting experiments with the necessary realism and equipment, while ensuring the comfort and safety of the Genesis crew. As the site consists of tunnels buried under mountains serving as a geological laboratory, it was decided to build the mission around those de facto “lunar caverns”.
To get a better idea of the location, you can watch the video of our first visit to the site. You can also learn more about the GTS and the mission on the page dedicated to Asclepios I.
Between the 24th and the 26th of July, we held our first Hackathon. It was centered around the theme “Exploring the moon and living in a lunar base”. It was a brilliant experience for us as we were able to accompany students in their search for innovative solutions to the problems faced by the global space community. We provided support during the whole event and in return, they offered us their solutions.
At the end, 80 students sat around in teams of 5 and carried a project focused on either Rover designs, anti-space-dust solutions, improving the lives of astronauts or hazardous material handling. At the end of it, we chose three projects to offer our support to, they are the DRAC01 project, the LEXICON project and the MAS project. They consists of:
- The use of electromagnetic and electric fields to clean spacesuits of invasive and toxic moondust;
- A pressurized chamber that could be installed around a drill, in order to easily collect Lunar regolith, gaseous products and mineral samples;
- An array of seismometers to prevent moon earthquakes from endangering astronauts during their stay on our satellite.
We want to thank everyone who has applied and those who have participated. We have recorded each project’s presentation and they can be found in our Youtube playlist.
On the 15th of June, the recruitment for analogue astronauts for the mission Asclepios II opened. We are looking for students all around the world to crew our “space” base for our second mission. This mission’s focus will be sustainability of the base and the mission both for ecological purposes and long term habitation.
If you want to learn more on the procedure, you can check the dedicated page on our website. All it takes to apply is a CV and a motivation letter. The open recruitment phase ends on the 7th of July at midnight (Swiss time).
3,2,1,… Wait, I’m picking up an anomaly. Abort the launch sequence.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, EPFL chosed to take sanitary measures to slow the spread of the virus. The school has therefore imposed the closure of the Lausanne campus to guests where our astronauts’ training was to take place. The launch of the Asclepios mission in April was therefore declared NO-GO by the project managers.
But a rocket has much more inertia than that, you don’t stop it with a snap of your fingers. At best, it can be deflected. The mission will therefore take place at a later date among the three backup dates planned in case of a firing incident. Far from being a half-tone failure, the postponement of the mission to the 2020/2021 school year will be exploited to ensure greater realism.
From the 28th of february to the 1st of march, our astronauts have performed a dress rehearsal of the april mission. The Asclepios managers were taking the role of MCC and following the procedures laid down for the mission. The activities of this event included workshop given by the astronauts to exchange personnal skills among themselves as well as the assembly of the antenna of our radio-astro experiment.
The managers of the Asclepios project have to defended the mission planing in front of the EPFL laboratories. This public session aimed at presenting the project as well as obtaining the feedbacks of professionels in order to benefit from their experience.
The Asclepios astronaut crew as well as the project manager just did a workshop in the Swiss ski station of Crans-Montana. The workshop was lead by French polar explorer Alban Michon and took place between the 13th and 16th of february. Activities included building and living inside a tents camp, diving under the ice of the Moubra lake by day and by night as well as team building exercises. This was made possible thanks to the partnership with the economic promotion of the association of towns of Crans-Montana.
