Six trainees prepare in Wels for simulated Mars mission
Friday 30th October 2026 on 15:30 in
Austria
Six people training to become “analog astronauts” are preparing in Wels for a simulated Mars mission in Portugal next year, ORF reports. They will take part in the Amadee-27 mission from April 5 to 18, 2027, at the Monsaraz Analog Research Station, where they will practise how humans and robots could work together on Mars.
The ÖWF runs simulated Mars missions through its Amadee programme. The Portugal mission will be the 17th of its kind, according to ÖWF director Gernot Grömer. A habitat will be set up in Monsaraz, while mission support will be based in Vienna. Six crew members and 12 robotic vehicles will take part.
The international, multidisciplinary team will carry out 17 experiments. One, developed with the German aerospace agency, will test whether a group of robots can coordinate autonomously to collect rock samples or explore new terrain. The research will examine how robots with different capabilities can organise themselves to complete a task.
Another project, conducted with the Technical University of Munich, will explore how algae could provide oxygen for astronauts. Renana Bruckstein, a German trainee with a medical background, studies the effects of extreme environmental conditions.
Simulations are intended to test work procedures, cooperation between people and technology, and the effects of isolation in Mars-like conditions. “There are probably 1,000 things that can go wrong on Mars,” Grömer said, citing everything from a broken screw to poorly planned procedures. Analog research could help prevent about 800 of them from escalating into disasters, he said.
Amadee-27 is the first part of a two-mission programme, with a follow-up expected in a non-European desert in October 2028. The ÖWF’s previous simulations included missions in Armenia in 2024 and Israel in 2020. In 2025, its “World’s Biggest Analog” project coordinated 16 habitats across five continents from its mission control centre in Vienna.
Grömer estimates that the first crewed Mars flight could take place in 20 to 30 years. He said the people who will first set foot on the planet have already been born, though they may not yet know they will be part of that crew.