Even before Marco Sieber embarks on his first Kosmos mission, he has managed the hardest part: the 33-year-old from Bern was chosen from more than 22,000 European applicants to pursue a career as an astronaut.
After a long selection process, the European Space Agency (ESA) on Wednesday proposed 17 women and men who could one day go into space. Among them is Marco Sieber. In 2023 he will start a one-year course at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne. For example, a long-term goal is a stay on the International Space Station (ISS).
Sieber is the second Swiss astronaut to be nominated since Claude Nicollier, who made several space flights and once repaired the Hubble telescope during a spacewalk. Sieber is not a military pilot like Nicollier, but a trained parachutist and private pilot. He grew up in Burgdorf (BE) and studied medicine at the University of Bern.
After various positions in traumatology, anesthesia and helicopter rescue, he worked in urology at the University Hospital in Bern. His hobbies include numerous adventure sports such as scuba diving, ski touring and kite surfing.
In 2009 he completed the parachutist training Special Forces Command (KSK) in the Swiss army, where he reached the military rank of corporal.
Between 2009 and 2015 he worked as an assistant lecturer for anatomy and physiology courses at the medical faculty of the University of Bern. At the same time he was Parachuting instructor for pre-military parachute reconnaissance courses (Sphaar).
In 2015 he completed his medical studies at the University of Bern. He put the best final exam as a doctor and covered robot-assisted surgery in his dissertation.
After he 2018 Chief physician at Swisscoy for the multinational military formation KFOR (Kosovo), Sieber worked until 2019 as an assistant physician for emergency medicine at the University Hospital in Bern.
From 2019 to 2021 he was anesthesia assistant in Interlaken BE. Since 2020, the space student works as Emergency helicopter rescuesince 2021 as a urology physician assistant at the hospital center Biel BE.
According to the ESA profile, Sieber owns one Private pilot license. In his spare time he is adventurous athlete and operates skydiving, paragliding, scuba diving, ski tours and kite surfing, among others.
(dsc/sda)
Europe’s space strategy
With the showy presentation of its aspiring astronauts on Wednesday, ESA made it clear that it no longer wanted to be the little sister of its American counterpart NASA. At its ministerial meeting, which takes place only once every three years, it decided on an ambitious strategy up to 2025. It is making a total of 16.9 billion euros available for this – 2.4 billion more than three years ago.
Switzerland contributes 634 million euros (compared to 542 million three years ago). Swiss companies can count on similarly high orders. And occasionally with an astronaut student.
German ESA Council President Anna Christmann called the conference a “very clear signal to the world that we want to be a strong player in space”. In the core area of European space, the construction and launch of satellites, Germany, France and Italy have agreed on a microlauncher programme.
These mini-missiles launch so-called “constellations” of small satellites, which, among other things, make the global internet possible from the air. The Americans are already building such a network called Starlink; 2000 of the total of 40,000 dwarf satellites American entrepreneur Elon Musk already placed in a low orbit.
Europe lags behind
The fact that Europeans now want to set up their own constellation was also seen in Paris by the French Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, as a “milestone for European sovereignty”.
European unity, on the other hand, was put to the test. The French objected to the microlaunchers; they prefer heavy rockets like Ariane, whose 6th generation is scheduled to launch in late 2023.
This European pioneering work had secured European dominance in the satellite business for decades. Today, however, it has fallen behind as Musk can offer significantly cheaper satellite launches with its reusable SpaceX rockets.
Of the German Economics Minister Robert Habeck reached in Paris that the state-owned ESA is now increasingly dependent on small private providers. And in Europe they mainly come from the German space industry. In any case, this change of strategy shows that Europeans are able to adapt to the new circumstances. It’s just that the adjustment is late – maybe too late. Several years have been lost to internal disagreements between Paris, Rome and Berlin.
Build on past successes
However, the ESA can also point to successes in some areas. This also applies to the European navigation system Galileo, which already has thirty satellites in orbit around the earth. Or the whole field of Earth observation: with its UV lasers, Europe is even ahead of its competitors who do not master this technology, said ESA Director Josef Aschbacher on Wednesday.
The Austrian also confirmed that the European ExoMars expedition will continue with a mobile “rover”. The Russians got out. However, the involvement of American companies saved the project, which almost ended in the spring because of the war in Ukraine.
What Aschbacher did not say: since the Russian Soyuz rockets are no longer available to ESA, they too must turn to the Americans. European Galileo satellites are now being launched using Elon Musk’s SpaceX. European sovereignty in space is not yet perfect.
Sources
(aargauerzeitung.ch)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
