How do people sleep in space? Is is possible to perceive acceleration in weightlessness? What happens when an astronaut becomes really ill? And which part of the astronaut training is the best fun? – At the joint event “MEET AN ASTRONAUT“ by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) of the University of Stuttgart on 3rd July 2013, around 600 aerospace enthusiastic pupils and students made use of the opportunity to ask all of three international astronauts about their experiences in space. Along with the American business woman Anousheh Ansari, who spent nine days on the international space station ISS in 2006, the Russian ISS board engineer, Evgeny Tarelkin, who only returned in March 2013, as well as Prof. Dr. Ernst Messerschmid, who flew with the Space Shuttle Challenger as a payload specialist in 1985 reported on their work in space and the benefits for the earth.
Even before the podium discussion on the Vaihinger Campus of the University, selected pupil and
student groups from the region of Stuttgart presented their aerospace projects to the astronauts.
Whilst the pupils from the youth research centre Aerospace Lab from Herrenberg introduced
programmed robots they had made themselves and their micro satellite project, the SOFIA workgroup
from the Stuttgart Gottlieb-Daimler Grammar School had various experiments up their sleeve in order
to investigate cosmic objects in the infrared area - similar to the great role model, the flying
observatory SOFIA. Students from the University of Stuttgart introduced their work to the
astronauts on the position control technology of small satellites as well as on a completely
self-constructed experimental rocket. “The fascination for aerospace among young people is still as
strong as ever.
It motivates many students and pupils to get to grips with questions of technology and
natural sciences and to keep up to date as well with difficult challenges - this has become
impressively visible again today“, is how Mr Ernst Messerschmid summarised it; he has been teaching
at the Stuttgart Institute for Aerospace Systems since 1986.
At the end of the round of questions Anousheh Ansari, Evgeny Tarelkin and Ernst Messerschmid
were available for joint photos and autographs. In the mobile Sojus simulator from the Institute of
Aerospace Systems, the stuents also displayed their skills in docking the Sojus spaceship on the
international space station. The Russian ISS board engineer Evgeny Tarelkin also did a round in the
simulator and described his experiences during a real docking manoeuvre on his space flight.
Whether as an astronaut or scientist – at the career booth of the DLR, pupils as well as
stuents were also able to obtain information on their career path in the aerospace industry.
Press contact:
German Aerospace Centre (DLR)
Communication Stuttgart
Denise Nüssle (Denise.Nuessle@dlr.de)
Telephone: 0711-6862-8086
University of Stuttgart
University Communication
Dr. Hans-Herwig Geyer (hans-herwig.geyer@hkom.uni-stuttgart.de)
Telephone: 0711-685-82555