100 Days left before the first Danish astronaut’s space mission
1 September 2015 the ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen begins his 10-day mission to the International Space Station ISS. Among other things Andreas Mogensen will test new technologies and deliver a new spacecraft to his colleagues in space-
Minister for Higher Education and Science Sofie Carsten Nielsen looks forward to following the mission.
- As newly appointed minister for outer space, it will be really exiting to follow the first Dane’s mission in space. He will be solving a transport problem in the space station and at the same time carry out scientific projects. A side benefit is that Andreas Mogensen inspires a lot of young people and thus, this will hopefully contribute to more young people applying for acceptance in higher education programmes within the fields of technology and natural science says Sofie Carsten Nielsen.
Andreas Mogensen’s mission to the International Space Station has been named Iriss and it will be the first time ever that a Dane will be floating over the door sill in ISS.
Scientific experiments in space
During the mission Andreas will test a new, tight-fitting suit, a ScinSuit which should ease the back pain that many astronauts suffer from. Moreover, biological experiments should investigate Andreas’s veins, muscles, bones and brain to see how they manage the weightless condition in space.
The aim of many of the experiments is to test new methods to how faster and more precise cooperation with the space center on Earth can be made. During the mission Andreas will carry out some tasks without prior training on Earth.
Here, he will only use just-in-training which is based on 3D software. While he carries out the tasks, a headset will live stream video to the space center on Earth so that they can follow him and guide him when necessary.
Read more about Andreas Mogensen’s space mission on
About Andreas Mogensen
Andreas Mogensen has a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Imperial College London and a PhD from University of Texas in guidance, navigation and control of spacecrafts. In addition, Andreas Mogensen is honorary associate professor at DTU Space.
In 2009 the European Space Agency, ESA, selected Andreas Mogensen as the first Dane to their corps of astronauts. He finished the astronaut basic training programme in 2010 and has since then continued his training prior to his mission to ISS in Europe, USA and Russia.
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