#MarsMontag Habt ihr schon die neue ZDF TerraX Doku über den Mars 🔴 gesehen? Nebst den Astronauten Alexander Gerst und Ulrich Walter im Interview, gibt es auch atemberaubende Aufnahmen von unserer #AMADEE18 Simulation im Oman. Auf YouTube ansehen ⬇️ ow.ly/Rx7Z50vfkIL

My turn with the training gloves for the spacesuit simulator. There are 3 layers, making fine motor skills practice a must for successful operations. Household chores... not too hard. Origami... surprisingly decent. Violin... hopeless. #oewf

I had to wait till the last slot at our final training weekend, but the wait and the work was worth it. My chance in the suit, practicing my skills during an EVA. Made me forget about our upcoming six hour final exam. #oewf

Excited to be at the Analog Astronaut graduation at the European Mars Conference in London. We ended with the regolith ceremony, where we swallowed a mixture of Mars and moon simulant and earth dirt (washed down with water). No turning back now!

Here I am demonstrating our suit to the film crew of the China Global Television Network. Seriously cool equipment on both sides of the lens.

CGTN did a cool special about the OEWF and analog astronauts. Still trying to figure out what it means to "act natural" in front of a TV camera. Oh well, it only broadcast in about 270 countries anyway. newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-1…

I'm going to Marsrael! Today it became official that I was selected to be part of the crew. Looking forward to working with this amazing team.

Getting excited about the mission based on all these cool experiments!

#MarsMonday during the last months our Aouda spacesuits underwent intense care to prepare them for our next #simulateMars mission in Israel. Analog Astronaut Robert Wild recently tested the upgrades & recommissioned the spacesuit. #AMADEE20 #ExploringTomorrow

Glad to see the subject of my PhD thesis is now combined with my current interests.

Preparing to #SimulateMars at our first dress rehearsal weekend. Mission Support Center is taking shape and we got a closer look at experiment procedures and hardware. Inigo here trying out rover controls haptic feedback. Also learned how to take some bio samples. For science!

Another packed weekend of preparations to #SimulateMars. It included psych training, hands on practice with the drone hardware, and food tastings of meals developed by dieticians. Also suited fellow crew member Joao. It's getting smoother every time.

Unfortunately the mission is postponed one year, but we still had a successful training weekend. Got to know the rover up close, and had a chance to practice with a smaller version.

Controlling a rover through its cameras, but with haptic feedback to help out. That was tons of fun! Going down the stairs was a piece of cake. Up didn't really work, though.

Thought I might share something not space related. I built myself a snow shelter (specifically a quinzhee) to spend the night in the mountains. It's hard work, but the solitude, the serene quiet night, the clear starry sky, and the not freezing to death are totally worth it.

Your front-row seat to my Mars landing is here. Watch how we did it. #CountdownToMars

Amazing landing, and excited to see what's coming! But I kinda feel like they should rename the Opportunity rover as Perseverance, and maybe call this Perseverance II. Let's hope it proves just as robust or even more so.

The data coming from Perseverance are amazing, but I'm really excited for the trial flights of Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter. We'll be exploring the interaction between Analog Astronauts and airborne drones in our upcoming simulation, #AMADEE20. #ExploringTomorrow

To all my interested followers: I have found that the twitter format doesn't match my posting style too well, so I'm moving my online presence to instagram. Follow me there at _astro_wild_ if you're interested in further posts about my life as an analog astronaut. Seeya there!