First Crew - Andreas Mogensen

 

An active individual who, besides being an astronaut, Andreas is also active in several adventure sports, including scuba diving, skydiving, kite surfing, kayaking and mountaineering. Other interests include science, in particular astrophysics, exobiology, and evolution. 

Having a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Imperial College London, Andreas has also studied at  the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon, Portugal. He has  received a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas and his research interests include guidance, navigation and control of spacecraft during entry, descent and landing; mission analysis and design; and trajectory optimisation.

Andreas has an extended background and has worked as an engineer in oilfield services, working as a drilling services engineer, and was also stationed in the Republic of Congo and the Republic of Angola working on offshore oil rigs.

Andreas has also worked in the green energy industry where he worked as a control systems engineer in R&D designing a control systems for wind turbines.

Space related work involved being a  research assistant at the Center for Space Research and a teaching assistant in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He has also worked as an attitude and orbit control systems engineer for HE Space Operations. He was subcontracted to Airbus in Friedrichshafen, Germany, for the duration of his employment, where he worked on ESA’s Swarm mission. (ESA's three-satellite Mission was dedicated to study of the Earths magnetic field.)

Andreas was a research fellow at the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey in the UK focusing on spacecraft guidance, navigation and control during entry, descent and landing for lunar missions.

Andreas was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009 and has since been trained and certified as a private pilot by the Lufthansa flight school and is trained and qualified for spacewalks using both the American EMU spacesuit and the Russian Orlan suit.

Andreas participated in the ESA CAVES underground training and was also selected as a crewmember in two NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) missions. 

In addition to his astronaut training activities, Andreas worked on the engineering team for the ESA Lunar Lander mission at ESA’s technical heart, ESTEC, in the Netherlands, where he was involved in the design of the guidance, navigation and control system for precision landing.

Andreas is currently serving as the European astronaut liaison officer to NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). 

Andreas became the first Danish citizen in space on 2 September 2015 when he was launched on the 10-day ‘iriss’ mission to the International Space Station. While on the Space Station, Andreas worked as a flight engineer, performing experiments in a variety of areas. He also served as a flight engineer on Soyuz TMA-18M during launch and on Soyuz TMA-16M during his return flight.

I have added Andreas to this list of first crew not just for his exceptional educational and work background but also because of his international and activities background. An astronaut must not only be knowledgeable and experienced in space but also have challenged themselves in environments that would prepare them for the confinement and dangers of space travel and have a sense of adventure as well. His international studies and work environments will have also helped him to prepare to work alongside peoples of many nations and cultural backgrounds. This is an essential criteria for prolonged space travel.

BACK