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04 MAR. 2017
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Vloggers recently spent two days at ESA’s astronaut centre to prepare for space – at least for the virtual world of the new Mass Effect: Andromeda computer game.
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With ESA astronauts Luca Parmitano and Matthias Maurer
ESA’s centre in Cologne, Germany, welcomed six European celebrities of the gaming world to put their gaming skills to the test on real astronaut training.
The budding astronauts go by such names as Squeezie, from France, Sep from the PietSmiet German collective, SciFun, from Poland, Jane of the Outside Xbox collective, TheGrefg from Spain, and Steffan Powell from the BBC, UK.
The six reporters filmed and documented themselves piloting a simulated Soyuz spacecraft, making a ‘spacewalk’ in ESA’s pool and submitting to tilt tables, rotating chairs and vertical treadmills at the German aerospace centre’s ‘envihab’ facility. Not all the challenges were strenuous: the YouTubers and reporters were treated to space food developed for European astronauts.
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Steffan at envihab
This project was hosted by ESA’s astronaut centre in collaboration with the game company Electronic Arts and Rain Productions to support young and creative people who are thinking about the future of space exploration.
The new game will be released 23 March and centres around space exploration and teamwork.
The six recruits are releasing their videos on their channels. In March a series of videos with ESA experts will discuss the real-life science behind the themes in the game: astronaut psychology, living in isolation and exploring new worlds.
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ESA astronauts
In 1998, ESA Member States participating in the International Space Station (ISS) programme decided to unite their respective astronaut teams with the existing ESA core team to form a single European Astronaut Corps. This integration process was completed in 2002.
Training
Based at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), ESA’s Space Training Team ensures all European astronauts are well prepared for missions to the International Space Station and equipped for the next phase of space exploration.
Space Medicine
Astronauts face many health challenges when living and working in space, including the impacts of microgravity, radiation and isolation.
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