After months of preparation, our nine analog astronauts (AA), from Austria, Greece and Portugal, stepped out of their normal everyday lives into an extraordinary adventure: undertaking a five-day mission in a simulated Mars environment in the Portuguese region of Alentejo!

Don’t miss EXPLORE-1, the first student analog mission in Portugal. Follow our nine trained high school students from Austria, Greece and Portugal to see how they face the challenge of being isolated, in a harsh environment, reliant on each other from 23 to 27 June!

One of these rovers will be used by the EXPLORE students during their analog mission, performing tasks similar to those conducted by rovers on extraterrestrial surfaces.

A group of young analog astronauts – and their teachers – spent two full days following the first EXPLORE Mission Intensive Training (EMIT) course online!

Preparation for the first EXPLORE analog mission planned for June is running on schedule in Austria.

Enthusiasm for our EXPLORE project is contagious, as students and staff at the Amadeus International School in Vienna, Austria will be happy to tell you!

This month teachers in selected schools in Austria, Greece and Portugal received EXPLORE’s physical mission toolkits.

Here we are proud to reveal the mission patch for the first EXPLORE mission in 2025!

Calling all teachers! You can now access the Virtual Mission Toolkit!

The first EXPLORE Mission date was announced during the Transnational Project Meeting, on December 2024 in the offices of the Austrian Space Forum.