First Female German Astronaut - a Commercial Human Spaceflight Initiative
- Paper number
IAC-17,B3,2,3,x37276
- Author
Mrs. Claudia Kessler, HE Space, Germany
- Coauthor
Mrs. Susanne Peters, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany
- Year
2017
- Abstract
In 1963, Russia sent Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman astronaut into space, followed 20 years later by the US's Sally Ride. In 1996, Claudie Haigneré was the first French women to go into orbit. Today, half of the astronauts in the US are women. All of the eleven astronauts sent by Germany on missions into space were men. In Germany, there are women with outstanding qualifications working in engineering and aerospace. And there are plenty of young talented people waiting for their chance. In German auditoriums, more than 300.000 women are currently attending lectures in so-called STEM subjects that include mathematics, computer science, biomedical science and technology. This untapped potential now needs to be exploited and society must continue to attract women and girls to space and technology. We want to turn the vision to fly a first female German Astronaut (Astronautin) to ISS in 2020 into reality. The project will be financed by crowdfunding, in-kind contributions of major players in the space field and sponsors from the business sector. The project pursues three goals: A women astronaut will bring new life to Germany's aerospace sector. This female astronaut will be a role model who will encourage women and girls to set their sights on aviation and aerospace. During the mission, she will also conduct medical tests designed to examine the female body's response to zero gravity. A selection process has been conducted in 2016. 400 female engineers and scientists have applied to become the first female German Astronaut. “Astronautin” is a completely new way of conducting a human spaceflight project.“Astronautin” is a pilot project for an new type of human spaceflight mission which follows the so called new space or Space4.0 movement that has been started by companies like SpaceX, Xprize foundation, XCOR, Virgin Galactic, etc. With the Astronautin project we demonstrate that this new way of conducting space projects is also possible in Europe. New knowledge is gained through all phases pf the project, knowledge that can then be applied to other projects in the space or even non-space field to create future business. The selection process, the training plan and the mission planning will be presented.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-17,B3,2,3,x37276.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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