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The electronics unit of the Tumbleweed V2 prototype displayed at the Technical Museum Vienna

Tumbleweed at the Museum of Technology

On display in the permanent exhibition

First AM aluminum parts

Partnering with the FH Wiener Neustadt and Fotec

Oman Mission

AMADEE-18 by the Austrian Space Forum

Odysseus Space Contest Final

1st place for Team Tumbleweed!

The electronics unit of the Tumbleweed V2 prototype displayed at the Technical Museum Vienna

Tumbleweed at the Museum of Technology

First AM aluminum parts

Oman Mission

Odysseus Space Contest Final

team.tumbleweed

Talk about growth - swipe to see the difference fo

Talk about growth - swipe to see the difference four years made on our Tumbleweed rover!
The second slide shows the very first stage of the Tumbleweed. Still rather fragile and small, this version (slightly reinforced) still went on to win the Odysseus Space Contest! Several times its original size and many design improvements later, the V3 prototype (first image) can definitely withstand far more. Here you can see the V3 in the Negev desert, during a 2021 Mars Analogous Mission with the @oewf_org. We can't wait to see what this comparison will look like in a few years!

Image credits: ÖWF

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A nebula, but make it AI-generated? Not quite! Whi

A nebula, but make it AI-generated? Not quite!
While these images may look eerily similar to computer-generated art, the compositions are based on observations made with a rather unusual telescope.

NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) was an airborne observatory in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center. It was a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft with a large door in the aft fuselage carrying a 2.7-meter reflecting telescope.
Until September 2022, it performed observations during 10-hour overnight flights at up to 13.7 km altitude. This allowed the telescope to observe the infrared universe above where the Earth's atmosphere absorbed those wavelengths.

Compared to space telescopes, SOFIA's benefits lay in the possibility of easily exchanging, servicing, or upgrading instruments between flights, while still avoiding much of the atmosphere's absorption. However, its high cost and comparatively modest scientific results eventually led to the project's termination.

Image 1: Magnetic field streamlines detected by SOFIA displayed over an image of the Keyhole Nebula, taken with the ESO 3.6-meter telescope on La Silla.

Image 2: Magnetic field streamlines detected by SOFIA displayed over an image of the Whirlpool galaxy, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The magnetic field lines seem to diverge from the galaxy's spiral shape in the outer arms.

Images 3 and 4: The SOFIA observatory over a desert in Southern California

Sources:
https://www.sofia.usra.edu/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/overview/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_Observatory_for_Infrared_Astronomy
https://spacenews.com/astrophysics-decadal-survey-recommends-nasa-terminate-sofia/

Image credits: NASA, the SOFIA science team, Y. Seo; ESO; NASA, the SOFIA science team, A. Borlaff; NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the Hubble Heritage; NASA/Jim Ross

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While our Tumbleweed Mars rover prototype is prett

While our Tumbleweed Mars rover prototype is pretty sizeable with its 2.5 m diameter, the upcoming fourth version still requires quite some fine motor skills. Working on the mechanisms that allow the rover to collapse and expand poses a very unique challenge in the design process, prompting some innovative ideas!

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This is where the magic happens! Our workshop in

This is where the magic happens!

Our workshop in Vienna has been a breeding ground for ideas and innovations on the Tumbleweed rover since the team's early days. With our team being spread across many locations and countries, our members in Vienna have the important job of testing new concepts and improving the various parts of our existing prototype. Fitting our Pink Lady through this door is rather impossible, though!

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It's #InternationalWomensDay and we want to spotli

It's #InternationalWomensDay and we want to spotlight some women who are truly out of this world!

Despite hundreds of humans having been to space, only around twelve percent of them were women. Thus far, spaceflight does not seem to have significantly differing effects on women, and some studies suggest that women may even be better suited for space travel.

In 1959, 13 female US pilots dubbed the "Mercury 13" petitioned to become astronauts, but were denied participation in spaceflight despite passing health screening tests.

Valentina Tereshkova, originally a textile factory worker, was the first woman to go to space in 1963, aboard the Soviet Vostok 6. At the time, women could not get qualified as space pilots, and the event was largely driven by propaganda values.

For 19 years, no other woman went to space. It wasn't until the 1980s, around 20 years after the first spaceflight, that women were admitted to the astronaut and cosmonaut corps. Mission specialist Sally Ride was the first female US astronaut and third woman in space in 1983.

It took almost another 20 years for a woman of color to travel to space. In 1992, engineer and physician Mae Jemison was the first African American woman to go to space, aboard the STS-47.

In 2021, Mary Wallace Funk - one of the Mercury 13 - became the oldest woman to go to space at age 82. Flying commercially aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard, Funk was the only one of the Mercury 13 women to go to space.

We applaud these women for their amazing accomplishments and look forward to seeing many more!

Find the image descriptions in the comments.

Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/space-travel-four-ways-women-are-a-better-fit-than-men
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_astronauts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_space
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Funk

Image credits: NASA

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Change the way humans explore Mars with us - two d

Change the way humans explore Mars with us - two days left to apply! 🚀

We are looking for new members to help us bring our Tumbleweed Mars rovers to the Red Planet, especially in the roles of Electrical System Engineer, Power Electronics Engineer, On-board Data Handling Engineer, Embedded Software Engineer, Control System Engineer, Recruiting Manager, and Content Creator.

With our novel, wind-driven Tumbleweed Mars rover, we want to challenge the current approach to Mars exploration. Dropped in swarms over the Martian poles, the spheroidal rovers are engineered to perfectly harness the Martian winds. As the ~90 rovers are propelled toward the equator, they collect valuable scientific data.

Over the last five years, our international team has built several Mars rover prototypes, gathering the experience, contacts, and resources to push the project toward our next goal: an Earth-grade prototype.

To learn more about the open positions and find out what it means to be a part of the Team, head to teamtumbleweed.eu/apply and apply by March 5th! Please note that currently, all our positions are on a voluntary basis.

Bottom image: The V3 Prototype rolling through the Negev desert in Israel; Credits: ÖWF

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