Austrian logistics company Gebrüder Weiss has been awarded a contract to deliver valuable equipment to the Mars Mission Site in Israel, where international research institutes will carry out the simulation mission Amadee-20 to prepare future crewed missions on the Red Planet. 

The company was contracted by the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) which is carrying out its 13th simulation of a crewed mission to Mars. Gebrüder Weiss will assist the mission by transporting valuable and specialist equipment to the testing site in Israel’s Negev desert.

The Amadee-20 mission involves numerous international research institutions which will carry out 16 scientific experiments between October 15 and November 15.

The transport consists of two containers full of highly sensitive and valuable equipment including two spacesuit simulators. The logistics company has appointed four apprentices to prepare all the logistics and handle the customs formalities for this unusual transport under supervision.

“ have purposefully chosen our trainees for this challenge as we believe in providing opportunities for our next generation of logistics experts. They need to experience the weight of responsibility to become trailblazers of tomorrow. Our four apprentices will be responsible, under supervision, for handling all logistical tasks, customs formalities, and the transport of the mission equipment”, says Armin Ploner, branch manager Air & Sea at Gebrüder Weiss.

Analog research mission

The Amadee-20 is the 13th analogue Mars mission of the OeWF and is designed to test concepts, working procedures and equipment to find weak spots so the actual mission can be carried out as safely as possible, explains OeWF director Gernot Grömer. “The purpose of simulating a Mars mission on earth is to prepare for future crewed missions on the Red Planet. To perform the experiments, the OeWF has developed a prototype spacesuit which is worn by the OeWF’s analogue astronauts during their mission.”

The Amadee-20 mission includes experiments from Austria, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the USA  and will be conducted by six specially trained OeWF analog astronauts. They will be supported by the Mission Support Center in Innsbruck, where several teams are responsible for providing the field crew with scientific support, drawing up the mission schedule, backing up the collected data and monitoring the medical conditions of the field crew.