This interdisciplinary course, open to all Innsbruck University bachelor students, provides a broad overview of the scientific and technical foundations of future Mars missions.

Topics include the formation of terrestrial planets, the geology of Mars, resource utilization and construction methods on Mars, biological and biotechnological aspects of transplanetary habitats, fundamental principles of spaceflight, and Mars rover instrumentation. The course also offers insights into crewed space missions and current analog research missions. A highlight will be excursions to the ISS Control Center (including the Columbus Module) near Munich and the SuitLab of the Austrian Space Forum in Innsbruck.

The course comprises of lectures every Wednesday evening, workshops, group work and will finish with a 2 day excursion to the ISS Control Centre in Munich.

The course is given by Prof. Dr. Bastian Joachim-Mrosko, Dr. Gernot Grömer, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Konzett, Ass. Prof. Dr. Clifford Patten, Univ. Prof. Dr. Barbara Imhof, & Dr. Layla van Ellen