On July 8, 2022, the University of Bremen is set to launch its large-scale initiative “Humans on Mars – Pathways Toward a Long-Term Sustainable Exploration and Settlement of Mars.” Around 60 researchers from eight faculties are working together to address the question of how concepts for long-term, sustainable human exploration and colonization of Mars might look.

This initiative is not about technological feasibility – such as designing a suitable spacecraft for the long flight there. Instead, the focus is on people and the complex challenges they are likely to face on the ground. Equally important is the question of its effects – on the pristine environment of Mars and, not least, on our dealings with Earth.

The Importance of the Initiative:

“Current efforts around the world are unstoppably aimed at flying humans to Mars in the foreseeable future. With our research, we want to show ways in which a permanent human presence on Mars can provide long-term benefits for mankind and at the same time be done with careful consideration for the red planet,” explains Professor Marc Avila, spokesman for the Humans on Mars initiative and director of the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen.

The Bremen initiative differs from the primary objectives of space agencies and private companies also working to implement Mars missions. Often, the focus there is solely on technology and the survival of astronauts on Mars – which means an immense impact on the planet’s environment. “Our interdisciplinary research approach is therefore essential for the “Humans on Mars” initiative. This is the only way to develop radically new solutions to meet the extreme demands of life and survival on Mars,” explains Avila. “The goal is to replace the current paradigm of productivity with one of sustainability.”

The Initiative’s Key Research Questions:

Specifically, the scientists will deal with the following questions: How can human settlements become autonomous and self-sufficient under the extreme, even hostile, environmental conditions on Mars? What might new processes that address the extreme energy and resource scarcity on Mars look like? Could dangerous space radiation possibly be used to generate energy? How is a micro-society with artificially intelligent systems and machines in its midst formed, and how will its relationship with humans on Earth develop over the long term? 

“Environmental protection” is a priority: What tradeoffs are possible between colonization and human intervention on the one hand, and the integrity of the new environment and Martian atmosphere on the other? And last but not least: Can we transfer the findings from the more responsible use of resources, which are even scarcer on Mars than on Earth, to our planet as well – in other words, learn from Mars for Earth?

About the Initiative: 

The initiative is supported by the state of Bremen. The impetus and leadership for “Humans on Mars” comes from the high-profile area of MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes at the University of Bremen. About 60 scientists from eight faculties of the University of Bremen are involved. Nonuniversity research institutes of the U Bremen Research Alliance such as the DLR Institute of Space Systems, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, the Leibniz Institute for Materials Oriented Technologies IWT, and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (DFKI) are closely involved. 

To the Launch Event:

At the launch event on July 8, 2022, at the Haus der Wissenschaft in Bremen, all participating researchers are expected to present their respective subprojects within the framework of the “Humans on Mars” initiative. The event will be inaugurated, among others, with a welcome address by Dr. Claudia Schilling, Senator for Science and Ports of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, and Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, President of the University of Bremen.

Additional Information:

https://uni-bremen.de/humans-on-mars-initiative
www.uni-bremen.de/en

Contact:

Vanessa Röttger
University of Bremen
MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes
Tel.: +49 421 218-64952
Email: v.roettger@uni-bremen.de

The focus of the initiative is not on technological feasibility – such as designing a suitable spacecraft for the long flight. It is rather on people and the complex challenges they are likely to face on the surface of Mars, as well as potential consequences: humans on Mars will change the pristine environment of the red planet, and they will affect how we treat our home planet Earth.

The event was opened with a welcome address by Dr. Claudia Schilling, Senator for Science and Ports of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, and Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, President of the University of Bremen.

But not only the research topics of Humans on Mars were discussed, many students and prospective students could inform themselves about study opportunities at the University of Bremen.

Many thanks to our numerous visitors and the great exchange at the booth!

Present at the meeting on behalf of the University of Bremen were Prof. Dr. Marc Avila, Director of ZARM and spokesperson for "Humans on Mars", Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kurosch Rezwan, spokesperson for MAPEX, Dr. Christiane Heinicke, scientific coordinator of "Humans on Mars" and Dr. Benny Rievers, junior researcher at ZARM. They provided insights into the current research projects surrounding the initiative and offered the mayor "hands-on science." After the welcome by Marc Avila, the program included a tour of the model habitat, which is intended to enable (over-) living, working and research on the red planet.

Press release of the press office of the Senate Chancellery:

https://www.senatspressestelle.bremen.de/pressemitteilungen/buergermeister-bovenschulte-bremer-mars-forschung-ist-herausragend-410887?asl=bremen02.c.730.de

YouTube: https://youtu.be/xLeVanGT8Io

Watch the report here and get an insight into the research project of the interdisciplinary initiative:

https://www.butenunbinnen.de/videos/humans-on-mars-forschung-uni-bremen-100.html

In the second half of the day, the focus was on developing ideas for new collaborative research projects. Building on the morning's sessions, the participants met in two groups and worked together on their concepts.

All members of the initiative contributed greatly on this day to advancing the research of the Humans on Mars initiative of the University of Bremen. We thank them very much for their participation and great commitment.

Many thanks to all participants for coming in such large numbers and participating with a critical eye. In this way, we were able to experience a very fruitful day from which all those present can benefit in the long term.

- How can we conceptualize interaction as a key concept in the human-technology relationship?

- Can the concept of design serve as a unifying concept that integrates all themes and ideas mentioned above?

- How can these themes contribute to the current theory and practice of technological design?

- In what ways can we apply these approaches to understand our relationship with emerging technologies such as VR, AR, and IOT?

- How can we understand the moral status of technological artifacts such as robots and AI, such as Chat GPT, using these approaches?

- With the widespread presence of intelligent and interactive machines, how can these lines of thought help us improve workplace design?

Confirmed keynotes

- Prof. Peter-Paul Verbeek (University of Amsterdam):

Disruptive Technologies and the Possibilities of Responsible Design

- Prof. David Gunkel (Northern Illinois University):

The Relational Turn: An Ethics for the 21st Century and Beyond

- Prof. Dr. Marc Hassenzahl (University of Siegen):

Chatbots, robots, smart things: Challenges of designing meaningful interaction with „Otherware“

- Prof. Kari Kuutti (University of Oulu):

Exploring technological mediation – an Activity Theory perspective

General information

The workshop will take place as part of the Humans on Mars Initiative (https://www.uni-bremen.de/humans-on-mars-initiative).

How to apply

The workshop is open to attendees who may or may not have a paper presentation. For those who are interested in presenting their papers, there are limited slots available exclusively for Ph.D. students and Postdoctoral researchers. To apply for a presentation slot, interested individuals must submit a 500 to 1000 word abstract and a short bio in PDF format to the organizer, Dr. Abootaleb Safdari, at asafdari@uni-bremen.de by Jun 8, 2023; 23:59. The presentations should not exceed 20 minutes and will be followed by a 10-minute Q&A session. On the other hand, if you prefer to attend the workshop without presenting a paper, you can send a short bio to the organizer by the same deadline. The selection results for all applicants will be communicated by June 15th, 2023.

Attendance and Excursions

There are no registration fees. Conference attendance is free of charge for presenters and for general public. During the conference, participants will have the opportunity to engage in two exciting excursion events. The first excursion promises an intriguing visit to the MaMBA (Moon and Mars Base Analog) located at the prestigious ZARM center of the University of Bremen. This remarkable facility replicates the conditions and challenges faced in lunar and Martian environments, providing a unique insight into the possibilities of future space exploration. In the second excursion, attendees will have the chance to explore the rich historical heritage of the city.

Here, knowledge transfer took place in a playful way: Not only adults, but even the youngest visitors were able to interactively gain insights into research on the exploration of Mars. They programmed small robots themselves using color codes and sent them across a Martian surface around a 3D model of the MaMBA habitat.

Professor Marc Avila, spokesman of the initiative, answered the questions of the visitors at the "Ask a Scientist" event and was pleased about the large number of visitors on the subject of Mars: "The visitors are very interested in it," said the scientist. "And many interesting questions can be answered in direct conversation."

Here you can see what they have to say about their stay in Paris:

Ksenia Appelganc, PhD Humans on Mars

“It was a great pleasure for me to attend the International Astronautical Congress in Paris. As an engineering psychologist, I have only recently become part of the space community through my work with the Humans on Mars initiative. Therefore, the IAC was the first space congress for me, and it exceeded all my expectations. I learned an incredible amount of new things during those five days.

This was mainly due to the fact that we not only had the opportunity to attend plenary and technical sessions, but also to meet so many exciting people through our involvement at the Bremen booth. Through the exciting presentations, I now know what approaches exist to protect the Earth from asteroids and what impact AI has on space exploration. It was also very special that Christiane Heinicke presented our project "The Living Habitat", which is part of the "Humans on Mars" initiative and in which I am personally involved, in one of the technical sessions.

I also met many young professionals from around the world and learned from them about the opportunities available in the space industry. What struck me most during these discussions was how enthusiastic everyone was about the interdisciplinary nature of our initiative, and I got the impression that such an interdisciplinary approach is really necessary.

To my surprise and joy I noticed that not only experts but also many students participated in the congress. I hope that we could inspire them for the initiative "Humans on Mars" and that we will see some of them at the University of Bremen. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the congress and look forward to the next event of this kind."

Daniel Vrankar, PhD at Humans on Mars initiative

“The five days at the IAC in Paris were an incredible time, especially because of the people we were able to meet there. Among others, we had the opportunity to talk to a senator, a high-ranking Airbus manager, and even the Bremen State Secretary Sarah Ryglewski. Also, the numerous conversations with many young, space enthusiastic students were unforgettable and allowed me to make many new contacts, especially with students from other parts of the world.

They were particularly fascinated by the Humans on Mars initiative, which we promoted daily at the Bremen booth at the congress. The Bremen booth offered to send postcards from the IAC, and in the end the Humans on Mars initiative postcard was among the top 5 most voted cards (out of 16).

Being the space geek that I am, I used my free time to stroll through the halls and check out the booths of various space agencies and companies showcasing their latest innovations, which was really fascinating. The technical sessions also gave me the opportunity to dive into topics that I found interesting and would like to focus on in my career as a researcher. Another highlight was the presentation of a joint paper by Dr. Christiane Heinicke in one of these technical sessions. Overall, I enjoyed it very much and definitely plan to attend the congress again next year.”

Conference contributions from the Humans on Mars Initiative:

Christiane Heinicke, Daniel Vrankar, Cyprien Verseux. “An airlock concept to limit the biological contamination of Mars during a human exploration mission.” 20th IAA Symposium on building blocks for future space exploration and development (D3) at 73rd International Astronautical Congress, Paris (2022): #72304. Abstract available online: https://iafastro.directory/iac/paper/id/72304/summary/

Volker Maiwald, Kim Kyunghwan, Claudia Philpot, Daniel Schubert, Vincent Vrakking. “On the path to lunar Eden: Roadmap and demonstrator design of a lunar greenhouse based on an antarctic prototpye.” 20th IAA Symposium on building blocks for future space exploration and development (D3) at 73rd International Astronautical Congress, Paris (2022): #67386. Abstract available online:

IAC-22,D3,2A,7,x67386.brief.pdf (iafastro.directory)

Marc Avila et al. “A vision for human Mars exploration made in Bremen.” IAF human spaceflight symposium at 73rd International Astronautical Congress, Paris (2022): #71602. Abstract available online: IAC-22,B3,8,11,x71602.brief.pdf (iafastro.directory)

Paul Zabel. “Beneficiation of lunar regolith – development of an experimental setup for technology evolution.” IAF space exploration symposium at 73rd International Astronautical Congress, Paris (2022): #68523. Abstract available online: IAC-22,A3,IPB,5,x68523.brief.pdf (iafastro.directory)

In the afternoon, the main focus was on the parallel group work: Here, participants focused on the further development of the content of new project proposals as well as on future activities within the initiative, such as laboratory visits at members' sites. The desire for deeper networking and the constant exchange of synergies should be taken into account here.

The meeting was rounded off with a get-together on the ZARM lawn - here the day's talks could be continued in a relaxed atmosphere with a cool drink.

We are pleased that we repeatedly came together in such a large group and thank everyone for their commitment!

Watch the video here! Lecture about Mars at the Bremen Children's University 2023  www.youtube.com/watch

Marc Avila, spokesman for the Humans on Mars Initiative, has been director of the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) and managing director of ZARM Fallturm-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH since 2016. He is also head of the Fluid Mechanics Department at the University of Bremen in the Department of Production Engineering - Mechanical and Process Engineering.

This included the Mars crew with six analog astronauts in the Negev Desert habitat. They are specially trained space suit testers who have completed basic training over several months and are deployed for technical tests and Mars simulations. Additional teams included the Mission Support Center in Innsbruck, which functions as a control center on Earth, as well as the on-site support team in Israel. The latter creates structures necessary for the Mars mission but does not have any direct contact to the analog astronauts.

Two Experiment Areas in INTERTEAM

“INTERTEAM is split into two experiment areas,” explains Vera Hagemann when speaking about the structure. The first experiment investigated the processes and constructs within the individual teams. “The six astronauts, as well as six participants from the Mission Support Center and on-site support team had to solve seven rounds of team tasks throughout the mission. These included planning an event where each team member had a task package - spanning from catering and decoration to the choice of music.” It was interesting to see how agreements were made and decision processes took place within the teams.

The second INTERTEAM experiment focused on the processes between the three teams and was carried out in three rounds. Together, two analog astronauts and two members of both the Mission Support Center and on-site support team solved different team tasks in each round. “The astronauts and the on-site support team shared their answers with the Mission Support Center, which then passed said information and its own answers on to the other team. The answers from all teams were needed in order to solve the next team task,” states Christiane Heinicke from ZARM. The communication between the teams took the lag between Earth and Mars into consideration.

“Interesting and Informative Experience”

Lara Watermann, a staff member within the Chair of Business Psychology and Human Resources, accompanied the initial round of the first INTERTEAM experiment at the Mission Support Center in Innsbruck. “It was a truly interesting and informative experience to not only encounter the so-called ‘bridgehead phase’, thus the active preparation phase for the mission in the Mission Support Center, firsthand, but also to gain insights into the other diverse international research projects.” It is expected that the first INTERTEAM findings will be available in February 2022 and will be included in publications and other research on the topic of “team performance in extreme surroundings.”

MarsLock Project: How Functional Airlocks Need to Be Designed

Whilst INTERTEAM is mainly led by Vera Hagemann, Christiane Heinicke is primarily responsible for the MarsLock project. Within MarsLock, recommendations for future airlocks are to be created based on the current movement patterns of the analog astronauts. Airlocks are one of the most important components of a Mars habitat: They make it possible for the crew to go into and leave the habitat in order to investigate their surroundings.

Such airlocks are pressurized and when an astronaut returns, they decontaminate the space suits that are worn during extravehicular activities (EVA). “We observed the preparations of EVAs during AMADEE-20. The results should help us to create designs for future airlocks. Good airlocks must be functional from both a technological viewpoint and from the perspective of the user,” explains project leader Christiane Heinicke.

AMADEE-20 Mars Simulation

The analog astronauts lived and worked in a habitat that was developed for the mission between October 11 and 31, 2021. When carrying out activities outside of the habitat, they wore a space suit prototype, which was developed and manufactured by the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF). The crew, which was made up of one German woman and five men from Austria, Israel, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, carried out research for future astronaut missions on Mars. During the mission, the signal traveling time simulated the lag between Earth and Mars. The analog Mars mission AMADEE-20 was carried out by OeWF, together with Israel Space Agency and D-MARS, the operator of the Mars habitat, in the Negev Desert, Israel. More than 200 researchers from 25 countries were involved in this international mission under Austrian leadership.

Further Information:

https://oewf.org/en/amadee-20/

Contact:

INTERTEAM Project

Prof. Dr. Vera Hagemann
Head of the Chair of Business Psychology and Human Resources
Faculty of Business Studies & Economics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-66750
Email: vhagemann@uni-bremen.de

MarsLock Project

Jasmin Plättner
Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM)
University of Bremen
Email: jasmin.plättner@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-57794

Link to the press release: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/university-communication-and-marketing/press-releases/detail-view/universitaet-bremen-an-mars-simulation-beteiligt

Habitats for Humans on Mars - Bremen Human Space Exploration Seminar

This contribution takes place in the context of the Science Year 2023 - Our Universe. The funding project "Mars finds a city" under the project management of the Halle-based association science2public - Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftskommunikation is bringing the red planet to us on Earth for this purpose. Seven meters in diameter and printed with original NASA photographs, the Mars work by British artist Luke Jerram has been traveling since May through nine science cities in Germany that cooperate in the "SK WISTA" strategy group Science in the City. The Haus der Wissenschaft in Bremen will present the Mars installation in cooperation with the Kulturkirche St. Stephani from August 24 to September 14, 2023. The installation will hang in the crossing of St. Stephani and will be accompanied by a diverse program of events including scientific lectures, concerts and workshops for school students*.

Since 2017, Dr.-Ing. Christiane Heinicke has been working at the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen. There, she leads the Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA) project, whose long-term goal is to develop a functional prototype for a Moon and Mars station. This work is part of the "Humans on Mars" initiative of the University of Bremen.

This contribution takes place in the context of the Science Year 2023 - Our Universe. The funding project "Mars finds a city" under the project management of the Halle-based association science2public - Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftskommunikation is bringing the red planet to us on Earth for this purpose. Seven meters in diameter and printed with original NASA photographs, the Mars work by British artist Luke Jerram has been traveling since May through nine science cities in Germany that cooperate in the "SK WISTA" strategy group Science in the City. The Haus der Wissenschaft in Bremen will present the Mars installation in cooperation with the Kulturkirche St. Stephani from August 24 to September 14, 2023. The installation will hang in the crossing of St. Stephani and will be accompanied by a diverse program of events including scientific lectures, concerts and workshops for school students*.

From the deep sea to outer space

The science magazine "Impact" is published regularly by the U Bremen Research Alliance. The University of Bremen and 12 institutes of non-university research, financed by the federal states cooperate in this alliance. It includes research institutes of the four major German science organizations, i.e. the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Helmholtz Association, the Leibniz Association and the Max Planck Society, as well as the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Cooperation in the U Bremen Research Alliance spans the four scientific focal points "Marine, Polar and Climate Research," "Materials Sciences and their Technologies," "Health Sciences" and "Minds, Media, Machines," and thus literally "From the Deep Sea to Outer Space." The scientific exchange in the focus "Materials Sciences and their Technologies" takes place through the cooperation in the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes.

Mars currently is sparsely inhabited by only a few active rovers. With recent advancements in space launch systems, space travel is expected to be more accessible to research facilities and private companies. Falling payload prices will rapidly increase the number of deployed robots. Under the hostile Martian conditions, a pure robot fleet could be a first step for exploration and settlements. While robots offer great advantages, a human-robot mixed team will be indispensable. A key question is where humans and where robots are needed. What should a robot look like and what capabilities do they need? Daily tasks and challenges space roboticists face were lively discussed with the audience.

Learn more about Science goes Public and the program here.

Space agencies aim to send humans to Mars. But how can we provide astronauts with food, oxygen, and other consumables? Part of the solution could lie in using plants and microorganisms from Mars’ natural resources. Cyprien Verseux explains the role of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in such a system.

Learn more about Science goes Public and the program here.

We were particularly pleased about the visit from Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte. Peter von Kampen welcomed him and reported on what was new at the University of Bremen since his last visit. 

But it wasn't just the research focus of Humans on Mars that was discussed; many students and prospective students were also able to find out about study opportunities at the University of Bremen.

Many thanks to our numerous guests and the great exchange at the stand!

Space missions face a number of significant challenges. One of them is how to produce oxygen and other chemicals sustainably in an environment that is completely opposite to our conditions on Earth. In this context, Dr. Katharina Brinkert and her team are researching new solutions: Their work focuses on photoelectrocatalysis – an electrochemical process that enables chemical reactions to be accelerated and controlled directly with the help of sunlight. This research could not only improve the living conditions of astronauts in space, but also answer fundamental questions about the efficient use of solar energy on Earth.

How exactly does photoelectrocatalysis work?

Photoelectrocatalysis is a process that mimics natural photosynthesis. It combines elements of photochemistry, photophysics, and electrocatalysis. Essentially, we use semiconductors, such as those used in computer screens, as artificial light absorbers, similar to the way plants use chlorophyll. These semiconductors are equipped with electrocatalysts that can catalyze certain reactions. Depending on the type of charge that is released by the light absorption and transferred to the electrocatalyst (electrons or holes), reduction or oxidation reactions can be carried out. For example, we can produce hydrogen when protons are reduced, while oxygen is produced when water is oxidized.

In other words, you are investigating how artificial photosynthesis can work on other planets.

Exactly. We are deepening our understanding of artificial photosynthesis by mimicking the principles of natural photosynthesis. This approach is known as biomimetics. Our research focuses on mimicking and understanding the exact processes in the plant that are important for the production of oxygen and other energy-rich compounds such as hydrogen. Our long-term goal is to produce these elements in space with the help of sunlight.

And why did you not use natural photosynthesis for this?

The decision to use artificial photosynthesis was based on the need to develop adaptable technologies for use in space. We do have solar energy there, as well as CO2 and, if we provide it, water. These resources are available both on Mars and on the Moon. However, the task of carrying out photosynthesis on these planets much more challenging than on Earth. Photosynthesis is a biological process in which plants, algae, and some bacteria use light energy to transform carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen. This process is closely linked to the specific environmental conditions on Earth. There are several reasons, such as gravity, atmosphere, and temperature, why photosynthesis would not necessarily work the same way on other planets. In addition, the light spectrum plays a role, as plants on Earth are adapted to the specific spectral lengths of sunlight. On Moon and Mars, the sunlight spectrum is different, which influences the effectiveness of photosynthesis. Besides, natural photosynthesis produces starch as an energy source, but this does not meet our energy requirements in society.

Why is the production of oxygen and other chemical compounds vital for space missions?

Space missions need to be self-sufficient in an extreme environment. The production of oxygen and other compounds plays a crucial role as they form the basis for the life support systems of spacecraft and stations. A practical example is the continuous supply of breathable air, which is ensured by oxygen production. Without this self-sufficient supply, a long-term mission in space would not be possible. For space missions, sustainable methods of oxygen production and CO2 recycling are crucial. Although astronauts on the ISS already have functioning oxygen production systems, they produce oxygen by electrolysis of water, which is powered by external solar cells and requires large amounts of energy. Our research seeks to develop alternative methods to make these processes more efficient and sustainable in microgravity. Self-sufficiency in terms of vital resources such as oxygen and hydrogen is essential for long-term missions and the exploration of space. Therefore, the production of oxygen and other chemical compounds is not only a technological challenge, but also a fundamental requirement for survival and the success of future space missions.

How can a system that relies on sunlight function efficiently in the extreme Martian winter, where the amount of sunlight is significantly lower than on Earth? The challenge seems to be particularly daunting at this time of year, when the sun is not available for long periods.

This is obviously an important point, as efficient energy storage mechanisms must be considered for systems that rely on solar energy. Incidentally, the storage mechanisms are not only relevant for the Martian winter, but play a role all year round. On Mars, they have to store far more energy than on the Moon or Earth, as solar radiation is generally much lower here.

To what extent could the technology you are developing for space missions help to use energy more efficiently not only on Mars, but also here on Earth?

Our research into artificial photosynthesis and photoelectrocatalysis has the potential to be applied not only to space technology, but also to drive advances in energy efficiency and the green energy transition here on Earth. The key lies in the efficient, direct use of solar energy, especially for the production of fuels such as hydrogen. This is important especially as the demand for green fuels grows. As green fuels in turn rely on renewable energy sources, the results of our research could help to improve the efficiency of solar energy conversion and storage. As a result, this technology would not only benefit space missions, but also drive the development of environmentally friendly energy systems and the reduction of CO2 emissions on our planet.

Looking to the future, how do you see the role of photoelectrocatalysis in our daily lives, whether on Earth or for future space missions?

Looking into the future remains speculative, of course, as we are still working on increasing the stability of our system for better performance. In order to optimize it further, we are also working with models, which help to predict the efficiencies on Moon and Mars. Another aspect we need to consider when looking ahead is the question of funding for systems powered directly by sunlight. Here, better technological and economic modeling can help to find cheaper and more sustainable materials, for example. In general, there are many interesting avenues for catalytic foundation research, as we are also investigating how gravity and low temperatures affect the electrochemical production of chemical compounds.

At the same time, we believe that there might be a number of useful applications. For example, use in desert and/or polar regions would be an option, where we could produce fertilizers locally with the help of sunlight using nitrogen from the air without any existing infrastructure. In polar regions, the climatic conditions could allow us to efficiently extract CO2 from the atmosphere to generate fuels locally.

Read full article here at auf up2date, the online magazine from University of Bremen.

The University of Bremen submitted three draft proposals for the establishment of new Excellence Clusters as part of the federal and state governments' Excellence Strategy. The team of the Humans on Mars Initiative has now been invited by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to submit a full proposal.

The chosen draft proposal from the field of materials science is among the 41 draft proposals selected by a panel of experts, which have now been invited to submit a full proposal by the end of August 2024. The final decision on the approval of the clusters will be made in May 2025. A total of 143 outlines were submitted nationwide.

With the Excellence Strategy, the federal and state governments are pursuing the goal of strengthening top-level research at German universities in particularly competitive fields of research. Funding is provided for Excellence Clusters, which are large, internationally visible research alliances in which researchers from different disciplines work together on a project and which contribute to building the profile of the respective universities. The funding gives researchers the opportunity to focus intensively on their research goal, train young academics, and recruit top international talent. Excellence Clusters receive support for seven years and a second funding period of another seven years is possible

Success in a Highly Competitive Process

The draft proposal "The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm" has today cleared a major hurdle on the way to becoming a Cluster of Excellence. I am extremely pleased about this and would like to thank everyone involved. Many drafts have been submitted across the country. The competition is fierce. The fact that the researchers at the University of Bremen have overcome this hurdle shows that we conduct recognized top-level research here," stated Kathrin Moosdorf, Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.

"This is a great first success that clearly demonstrates the importance of our research in the field of materials science," said Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen. "The researchers were able to prevail in a highly competitive process in which very good research projects had to be eliminated due to the limited number of places for new full proposals. We are proud of all of our teams that entered into the competition." Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer, added: "We would therefore like to expressly thank all three research teams. With their draft proposals, they have developed outstanding, innovative research ideas that will make an important contribution to further raising the profile of our university and strengthening our high-profile areas."

Pioneering Research in Materials Science

The researchers were successful with their cluster draft entitled "The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm." They assume that human exploration of Mars will take place in the coming decades – with enormous consequences for humanity on the one hand and the Martian environment on the other. A long-term research station requires the production of materials and components on site, but the scarcity of energy, water, and labor, as well as the extremely thin CO2 atmosphere pose major challenges. In addition, the long distance to Mars means that communication with Earth is only possible with a time delay. The Martian perspective helps researchers to answer the question of how sustainable production can succeed under these conditions. The aim is to develop a paradigm of sustainability that is geared towards resource scarcity: the Mars perspective. Specifically, it is determined by scarcity in four aspects: resources, energy, labor, and information. In the long term, the research findings will establish new ways of thinking on Earth and shape the sustainable use of limited resources. "With the Mars perspective, we will rethink the production of materials under the premise of resource scarcity. In doing so, we not only want to make a contribution to the exploration of Mars, but also to sustainability on Earth," explained Professor Marc Avila, Head of the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) and spokesperson for the cluster initiative.

MARUM Submits Application for Continuation

In the upcoming full proposal phase, the team from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences is also submitting an application – namely an application for continuation. One of the 57 Excellence Clusters currently funded throughout Germany has been based at MARUM since 2019. This is why MARUM is only now entering the full application phase of the current competition. This time, the researchers at MARUM are submitting the application for continuation of the Excellence Cluster "The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface" as a joint application together with scientists from the University of Oldenburg.

If a university is successful with at least two cluster applications, it may later also apply with a university-wide institutional strategy as part of the "University of Excellence" funding line. "At the moment, our main focus is on supporting the research teams that can now submit a full application. In the coming months, however, we will of course be discussing this possibility within the university," commented Jutta Günther.

Further Information:

https://www.dfg.de/en/research-funding/funding-initiative/excellence-strategy

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

Contact:

Dr. Achim Wiesner
Staff Unit for Strategic Initiatives (SPE)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60015
Email:

If you were unable to attend, you can find the video of Prof. Marc Avila's last lecture for children here: Lecture on Mars as part of the Bremen Children's University 2023

More about Science goes Public here: Science goes ... - Science goes Public!

Spending the winter at the polar ice caps. Spontaneously calling NASA and arranging an internship. Studying German at the same time. Racing over the Bremen dykes on a bicycle. No, the up2date. editorial team did not talk to several different people. Surprisingly, all these things are part of one woman’s life: Jess Bunchek. The versatile US-American scholar is pursuing her PhD at the DLR Institute of Space Systems within the Humans on Mars Initiative at the University of Bremen. On March 14, 2024, she will present her exciting research on “Plant growth in hostile regions” as part of the Science goes Public! series.

One situation in particular illustrates what is special about Jess Bunchek’s attitude towards life: the day of the storm. The then 28-year-old was living with nine other people at Neumayer Station III in the perpetual ice of Antarctica. Her job was growing plants in the EDEN ISS greenhouse container, located on a platform around 400 meters from the station – surrounded by perpetual ice. Jess Bunchek was growing plants so that the crew would have some fresh food during the winter. And to provide the people in this hostile environment with a chance to interact with something that grows. “That’s important for their mental health,” the scientist explains. But EDEN ISS is also about the future. Using Antarctica as an example, the astrobotanist was simulating whether and how it might be possible for people on a space station or on Mars, for example, to provide themselves with fresh, vitamin-rich food.

For this purpose, she had been growing lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, and other plants and fruit for 14 months – around 100 plants in a 12.5 square meter container. Inside: a pleasant 18 to 23 degrees Celsius, sufficient light, and a regular supply of water and nutrients for good growth. Outside: up to minus 50 degrees Celsius. An environment could hardly be more hostile. This is true even on any ordinary day. Even more so, when a storm with wind speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour is on the way. “On that day, I had quickly replenished the plants’ nutrient solution at EDEN so that they would hold out well during the storm. I was glad to be back at the safe Neumayer Station. It was already very stormy outside,” Bunchek recalls.

Alert in the Greenhouse

But as soon as she as she sat down, an alert went off: A pump in the greenhouse was no longer working properly. This could pose a threat to the plants. She did not hesitate for long, put her voluminous suit and her thick boots back on, and, accompanied by a colleague, set off for the greenhouse. “It was incredibly strenuous, as it had also become dark in the meantime. We couldn’t use a lamp because of the storm, as the light was incredibly reflective and totally disorientating. We had to work our way forward bit by bit,” remembers the researcher. The two stayed in contact with their colleagues at the station by radio. It was an incredible effort, but one that paid off. The researchers were able to get the pump working again. All the plants survived.

As this story demonstrates, Jess Bunchek is a woman of action. Someone who has the courage to attempt even the seemingly impossible. Growing up near Chicago, even as a child, she knew that there were two things that fascinated her: plants and space. A rather unusual combination, and one that she would not be able to turn into a career. “That’s what I thought anyway. So, I decided to pursue a degree in botany at Purdue University in Indiana, with a minor in German. But my interest in space has always remained.”

Two Passions United

A few years later, she was working on her master’s thesis in agricultural sciences. Incidentally, a NASA documentary was playing on TV. It showed a spacewalk from the ISS. This gave the young researcher an idea. Why not find out whether NASA might have an exciting job for her as a plant researcher? And indeed, she found an internship at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the promising name “Veggie Project.” “That was my topic!” Bunchek remembers. Before the TV report was even over, she had already found the right phone number and applied to NASA.

Today, some eight years later, she looks back on several years of exciting research work as an astrobotanist. She initially worked as a freelancer on the Veggie Project, and since 2020 has been a visiting researcher at the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen and at the Humans on Mars initiative at the University of Bremen. The latter made it through the first round of the prestigious Excellence Strategy of the German Federal Government and the Länder at the beginning of February 2024 and is now well on its way to hopefully becoming a Cluster of Excellence.

Bunchek’s office in the DLR building in Bremen’s Technology Park perfectly reflects her passions. Naturally, she has several plants, which – unlike in many other offices – are perfectly looked after. On the walls are pictures of Antarctica and an image of an astronaut in a spacesuit. The standard light brown office wall cabinet is barely accessible – several human-sized picture frames are leaning against it. They all show her greatest adventure to date: overwintering in Antarctica, or more precisely, interior views from the EDEN ISS greenhouse. An oasis of life in the middle of the perpetual ice.

Working on the Perfect Nutrient Solution

The former greenhouse has now been cleared out and is located in a courtyard behind the DLR building in Bremen. The double container returned to Europe on the Polarstern research vessel in spring 2023. However, the return of the container by no means marks the end of the research. In fact, the work is only just beginning. “My PhD dissertation is based on my findings from the Antarctic overwintering. Therefore, I immersed myself deeply in chemistry,” explains the botanist.

Specifically, she is working on nutrient solutions – the substance that supplies plants with everything they need, even in the most hostile regions. “We don’t yet know how the individual components in the nutrient solution behave. Especially after some time has passed. How effective is a nutrient solution if it is already two to three months old?” She expects to have deciphered the exact chemical behavior of the individual components soon. Then she will move on to the second part of her dissertation. This time she is touching on the engineering sciences. “As soon as we know what changes the nutrient solution undergoes over time, we can adapt the technical systems so that it remains usable for a considerably longer period of time,” explains the scientist. For example, it would be possible to equip the next generation of greenhouses with precisely tailored sensors and spraying mechanisms. The ulterior motive: conserving scarce resources. This is not only essential for survival on Mars, but in times of climate change, it will become increasingly important on Earth too.

And what’s the plan for after she submits her PhD dissertation? “I don’t know yet,” says the 31-year-old. She currently feels so happy in Bremen that she can imagine staying here. She likes living in her seven-person shared flat in the Stephaniviertel, and the shared dinners remind her of the unique group feeling in the seclusion of Neumayer Station. She can easily pursue her hobby of road cycling in northern Germany, and for mountaineering and diving – both of which she also enjoys – she regularly travels to more suitable locations.

After our interview, she is going to head to the USA: NASA is hosting a conference at which Jess Bunchek is giving a talk. Before she dashes off to pack her suitcase, I ask her a quick question about the ultimate plant care tip. “What did I do at EDEN to make the plants grow well? Nothing in particular. I talked to them from time to time. But not all the time. Most of the time, a Harry Potter audio book was playing. They seemed to enjoy that. They were about three times the size of the plants in my garden at home when I harvested them,” says the botanist with a smile

Read full article here at auf up2date, the online magazine from University of Bremen.

Scientists Dr. Cyprien Verseux and Prof. Dr. Sven Kerzenmacher from the University of Bremen are working on solutions for self-sufficiency on Mars – and how these could inspire sustainable life on Earth.

On Earth, we usually breathe almost automatically – it is only in moments of physical exertion or in crowded lecture halls that we realize just how important air is for us. But on Mars, where there is no atmosphere to enable natural breathing, the production of oxygen becomes a central challenge. Not only oxygen, but also many other vital resources become scarce on Mars. The idea of bringing everything needed for long-term survival along from Earth may sound appealing at first – like packing a backpack for a trip. However, experts quickly dismiss such an approach as not only uneconomical, but also simply impossible for missions that last more than a few years. Therefore, it is crucial to find ways to produce as much as possible on site from the naturally available resources on Mars. Bremen scientists Prof. Dr. Sven Kerzenmacher from the Center of Environmental Research and Sustainable Technology (UFT) and Dr. Cyprien Verseux from the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) are tackling this challenge as part of the “Humans on Mars” initiative in the “Sustainable Bioproduction on Mars” project.

Survival Starts with Cyanobacteria

Cyprien Verseux’s research is based on the use of cyanobacteria, one of the oldest life forms on our earth. These organisms could feed on gases from the Martian atmosphere and regolith, the top loose layer on Mars, and produce oxygen. Regolith contains elements such as calcium, magnesium, and iron, which stimulate the growth of the bacteria. However, these nutrients must first be extracted from the Martian soil, which is not without risks. This is due to the fact that regolith contains toxic compounds, especially perchlorates. The Martian soil is therefore both a source of nutrients and toxic compounds and must be handled with appropriate care. Cyprien Verseux has already demonstrated in the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology (LASM) at ZARM that the concept of oxygen production with the help of cyanobacteria using resources found on Mars can work. He is investigating how the bacteria can be developed to optimally absorb the resources of Mars.

Another complexity in dealing with cyanobacteria on Mars is that although they can use the gases present in the Martian atmosphere as a source of carbon and nitrogen, this atmosphere would have to be reprocessed to a certain extent. Verseux’s team is therefore examining how changes in atmospheric parameters affect bacterial growth and looking for a compromise between minimal processing of the atmosphere and efficient bacterial growth. This is crucial because processing these gases consumes resources, which are known to be scarce on Mars. Verseux emphasizes the relevance of comprehensive research to estimate not only the feasibility, but also the efficiency and the costs. “Knowing it can work is not enough. You have to know how well it works and how cost-efficient the system is,” explains Verseux.

From By-product to Resource Treasure

The targeted research approach goes beyond pure oxygen production. Sven Kerzenmacher, an expert in application development and bioelectrochemical systems at UFT, focuses on making sensible use of the by-products of oxygen production – namely cyanobacterial biomass that contains essential nutrients such as phosphate and nitrogen as well as carbon compounds.

The scientist and his team at UFT primarily work on integrating various processes that allow the conversion of cyanobacteria and regolith by-products into valuable secondary products, such as biofuel and bioplastics. Kerzenmacher’s team defines the characteristics and requirements of this part of the process and optimizes the processing of the cyanobacteria biomass. In doing so, he keeps an eye on the larger perspective: “In our field of environmental process engineering, there is a special focus on the analysis of integrated processes. Our research goes beyond the development of materials and detailed insights – we want to capture the big picture and understand and shape the system holistically. This comprehensive perspective is also reflected in the diversity of our research group, which brings together researchers from the fields of microbiology, physics, chemistry, and mechanical engineering.” Kerzenmacher’s vision is to use biomass in an integrated process, such as in electrolysis cells for producing bioplastics or hydrogen. Organic carbon is removed from the mixture, and the remaining product, a solution of nitrogen and phosphate, could in turn serve as fertilizer for plants in greenhouses on Mars. This is another step in the process for sustainable bioproduction on Mars. This part of the project is being pursued primarily by Dr. Daniel Schubert at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).

A Vision for Mars and Earth

The cooperation between disciplines and institutes brings Verseux and Kerzenmacher together for collaborative work for the first time. Sven Kerzenmacher particularly appreciates the interdisciplinarity of “Humans on Mars.” He says: “Cyprien and I knew each other before, visited each other’s labs and saw that there were overlapping areas. However, the initial decision to work together came within the framework of the initiative. This makes ‘Humans on Mars’ a wonderful opportunity for me to work with a lot of colleagues or to get together and exchange ideas.”

This exchange brings researchers together to not only explore partial aspects of bioproduction processes, but to comprehensively develop a closed loop system that uses Mars as an autonomous resource. The goal of collaborative research is to make the best use of a very limited number of resources. In this approach lies the potential for space exploration to not only expand human boundaries, but also inspire solutions for sustainable life on Earth, thus addressing the issues of our time.

Read full article here at auf up2date, the online magazine from University of Bremen.

"Bremen is the technology metropolis of the north," emphasized Mayor Bovenschulte on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, at the senate reception in Bremen City Hall. "You have all played your part in this in recent years. The applications for the Excellence Initiative paint an impressive picture: Bremen is at the forefront of research and teaching. Even if not all applications were successful, I am certain that they can still be very valuable in the competition for financial support for academic work."

Science and research are already a central economic factor in the state of Bremen, continued Bovenschulte. One in ten jobs is dependent on the science sector, with annual tax revenues of 228 million euros and added value amounting to 1.8 billion euros per year. Bovenschulte: "And last but not least, academia keeps our two cities young. It lowers the average age of residents, it is an economic driver, and it contributes to a high quality of life and a positive image of our two cities."

Research has Added Social Value for the State of Bremen

Kathrin Moosdorf, Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science: "The applications from the cluster teams in the current Excellence Initiative show how strong and diverse the academic landscape in Bremen is. This is also evident in the social relevance of the research topics – from the importance of the ocean for climate change to the sustainable use of limited resources, global solidarity, and the interaction between humans and AI. The research not only has an economic added value, but also a very concrete social added value for the state of Bremen and its future – and far beyond. I would therefore like to express my sincere thanks and respect to everyone involved for their work!"

Shaping a University of the Future

Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen, commented: "We look back with pride and joy on what we have achieved so far and thank all cluster teams for their extremely high level of commitment. The prospect of now being able to submit two full proposals also opens up the almost unique opportunity to once again acquire the title of University of Excellence. Our aim is not to achieve excellence for the sake of excellence, but, with the additional resources and visibility, to have the opportunity to shape a university of the future."

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/university-communication-and-marketing/press-releases/detail-view/bremen-materials-science-team-clears-first-hurdle-on-the-way-to-excellence-funding

The panel discussion took place at Universum Bremen on the occasion of the annual meeting of the German Astrobiological Society (DAbG). Here, more than 100 scientists are organized who are engaged in astrobiological research or related disciplines.

In an interview with the Weser Kurier, the four students Jan Hundelt, Nick Kraus, Nick Schröder and Tim Joritz were particularly enthusiastic about the modern setting of the university and impressed by the high level of motivation of the doctoral students. "It's important that students can try things out. This is how talents are discovered," explained Lucio Colombi Ciacchi. The professor at the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen is the scientific coordinator of the MAPEX Core Facility and Director of the Master's degree course in Process-oriented Materials Research (ProMat). Even before the pandemic began, he established contact with several schools in the region. "As a research institute, we not only offer insights into research for students, but also for pupils - which can also generate enthusiasm," says Ciacchi. If the project is continued next year, he is also considering offering further training for teachers.

Group 1 of the students carried out measurements at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) over the two days. They were led by three scientists from the Humans on Mars initiative, Paul Große Maestrup, Dr. Christiane Heinicke and Dr. Cyprien Verseux. On the first day, the students were able to carry out work instructions in an astronaut simulation in exchange with the Mission Control Room. On the second day, they continued in the laboratory with measurements on bacterial nutrient media and microscopic examinations.

Group 2 visited the Center for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technologies (UFT). Together with Prof. Sven Kerzenmacher, Parisa Mahdavi and Prof. Jörg Thöming, they learned why bacteria there are fed with electricity and how wastewater is treated biologically. During visits to the Environmental Process Engineering and Chemical Process Engineering working groups, they were able to gain an impression of what a university biolab looks like and what is done in it.

Group 3 spent two days at the Bremen Computational Center for Material Sciences (BCCMS) focusing on computer-aided material modeling. They were able to try out X-ray microscopy and computer simulations with three scientists from the Hybrid Materials Interfaces working group, Pia Götz, Eric Macke and Prof. Lucio Colombi Ciacchi. These were used, for example, to examine a nail from the historic Bremen cog.

Article from Iria Sorge-Röder, University of Bremen, translation by Britta Plote.

To answer to this question, Sieroka and Safdari are working closely with other Humans on Mars researchers. The initiative, in which researchers from the natural and engineering sciences cooperate with researchers from the humanities and social sciences, started around two years ago. Some researchers are investigating which creatures need to be bred on Mars in order to produce food, bioplastics, or oxygen. Others are concerned with space radiation: It is harmful to humans, but could it possibly be used as a source of energy as well? Many of these different research approaches are clustered in an application for the Excellence Strategy funding program of the German federal and states governments. The researchers will submit a full proposal for their “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” project in August 2024.

Life on Mars – Between Thought Experiment and Real Perspective

“Cosmology has a long tradition in the history of philosophy,” explains Norman Sieroka. The infinite vastness of the universe and the seemingly perfect orbits of planets already fascinated ancient philosophers such as Aristotle. Another tradition of thought approaches the subject from the opposite direction – not from Earth to space, but from space back to Earth. What do we learn about our life when we look at it from a distance? Space travelers who have seen Earth from space have reported a sublime feeling and a feeling of being connected with all of humanity. Researchers call this altered perception of life on Earth the “overview effect.”

The Humans on Mars research group is looking at both aspects: exploring the unknown and seeing the familiar from a different angle. On the one hand, researchers are working on concrete solutions for the highly probable scenario of humans landing on Mars one day. “On the other hand, as philosophers, we use the considerations about life on Mars as a thought experiment,” says Sieroka. Many of the challenges that arise on Mars are also relevant to life on Earth. These include the sustainable use of resources – a topic that is more important to us on Earth than ever before. Sustainability is even more important for life on Mars, as there are no plants, industrial production, or liquid water. Norman Sieroka is certain that it is precisely this pointed, but also unfamiliar perspective that can enrich our discussions.

Robots and AI Systems on Mars – Tools or Colleagues?

It is not only the question of sustainability that is becoming more pressing on Mars, but also that of the relationship between humans and technology – Sieroka and Safdari’s field of research. “Robots and AI systems in particular would be even more vital on Mars than they already are on Earth,” says Safdari. They would be indispensable for many things, among them building habitats for people, extracting water and minerals, and repairing solar panels. They would carry out some of these tasks independently, and some of them would be controlled by humans.

In any case, the cooperation would be closer and even more important than on Earth. More important because it could have life-threatening consequences if systems for generating oxygen, for example, fail. Closer, because it would take up to 20 minutes for a message from Mars to reach Earth. “So if a device doesn’t work, you can’t quickly ask people on Earth for advice,” says Sieroka. The relationship and dependency of humans and technology would therefore be as close as we usually only know from interpersonal relationships. Does that mean that we would perceive robots and AI as colleagues rather than machines?

Interviews on the Trail of the Martian Experience

The scientists are investigating concepts that might shape the relationship between humans and robots. For example, what characterizes trust? What unchangeable elements are part of it? Norman Sieroka illustrates this with a comparison, “A melody can be higher or lower, louder or quieter. But if it contains no sounds, it is no longer a melody.” In a similar way, the philosophers search for the sounds, the basic building blocks of trust.

But is trust the right term at all to describe our relationships with robots? In addition to theoretical considerations, Safdari and Sieroka want to investigate this question with the help of micro-phenomenological interviews. They want to use them to find out how people perceive working with machines in situations like the one on Mars. “Of course, we can only approximate such situations,” admits Abootaleb Safdari. Yet, there are ideal facilities for such an approximation at the University of Bremen, precisely at the MaMBA (Moon and Mars Base Analog) at ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity). It houses a habitat module that could also exist on the Moon or Mars. It consists of several cylinders, each with a diameter of around five meters and a height of six to seven meters, in which researchers test life and work on Mars. From cooperation with robots to delayed communication with people on Earth, the living conditions on Mars are simulated as authentically as possible.

Researchers who have worked here would then be invited to talk to the two philosophers afterwards. They would want to provide the researchers with as few terms and concepts as possible. For example, Sieroka and Safdari would avoid questions like “Did you trust the robot?” “Once the term ‘trust’ is in the air, it is difficult to think in other categories,” explains Sieroka. And that is exactly what the two scientists are interested in: going beyond traditional categories to redefine the relationship between humans, robots, and AI systems.

Read full article here at auf up2date, the online magazine from University of Bremen.

“We are entering the race with two very strong cluster applications,” says President Jutta Günther convinced. “Both the ‘Martian Mindset,’ which deals with the scarce resources on Mars, and our climate and marine research are dedicated to extremely relevant topics of our time. I thank all my colleagues who have worked hard on these two proposals in recent weeks and months. Now it’s time to continue our first-class research and keep our fingers crossed.”

The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm

The full proposal is “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm,” which successfully made it through the first application stage in February.

Seemingly unlimited resources have enabled humanity to geographically and demographically expand humankind, which has gone hand in hand with a massive exploitation of fossil fuels. This has set humanity on a path toward a rapidly deteriorating environment and an impending age of scarcity, which will challenge the very fundamentals of nearly all production technologies. Accordingly, various research efforts now focus on how to make production more sustainable, efficient, and automated.

In this cluster, researchers of the University of Bremen take a radically new perspective, aiming at a long-term paradigm shift. They place themselves on Mars, a potentially habitable but inhospitable world with scarce resources, and rethink the production of materials and parts from scratch.

The Cluster will establish the Martian Mindset as a new, scarcity-driven paradigm to produce materials and parts that are sufficient in quality for use. The Martian Mindset is guided by scarcity constraints in four dimensions – natural resources, electric power, human workforce, and information. The research will focus on three goals: First, developing (bio)electrochemical methods for the synthesis of raw materials from low-grade resources. Second, designing and demonstrating low-energy process chains that use these raw materials as input to produce a variety of enough-to-use parts. Third, devising concepts for production facilities operated by small human teams assisted by robots and digital representations of the processes. The fundamental knowledge gained through the Martian Perspective cluster will lay the foundations for a fossil-fuel-free production of materials and parts from scarce resources in a highly automated and resilient way.

Exploring the Ocean Floor: MARUM Submits Application for Continuation Together with the University of Oldenburg

The team from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has submitted an application for continuation. MARUM is already home to one of the 57 Clusters of Excellence currently funded nationwide. This time, the researchers at MARUM have submitted the application for continuation of “The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface” cluster as a joint application together with scientists from the University of Oldenburg.

The researchers investigate the ocean floor as an important, dynamic interface that has a wide range of functions for the entire Earth system. They analyze how geological, physical, chemical, and biological processes in and on the ocean floor interact with each other, thus influencing the climate system, the global carbon cycle, and the biological productivity in the world’s oceans. The researchers want to better understand the processes in order to include the ocean floor in detailed global mass budgets. This involves deciphering the transport processes of biogenic particles to the ocean floor and their transformation under changing environmental conditions, recording the transfer of carbon and other elements between the ocean floor and seawater, and understanding how ocean floor ecosystems react to environmental changes. Because of their scientific and technological complexity, these goals can only be achieved through interdisciplinary research.

The scientists at the University of Oldenburg make an important contribution here. In a future joint cluster, the universities want to pool their expertise in order to decipher further the role of the ocean floor for material cycles and biodiversity under changing climatic conditions. Another important goal is to provide a scientific basis for the protection and sustainable exploitation of the oceans.

A decision regarding the cluster applications will be made in May 2025. The successful Clusters of Excellence will be funded for a period of seven years starting from January 1, 2026. Universities that are successful with two Clusters of Excellence or university alliances that are successful with at least three clusters can apply for the title of University of Excellence in 2025. To achieve this title, a comprehensive future concept for the entire university or the alliance must be presented.

Further Information:

https://www.dfg.de/en/research-funding/funding-initiative/excellence-strategy

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

https://www.marum.de/en/The-Ocean-Floor.html

Whenever we go to remote places on Earth, we take sufficient supplies with us. In space, the astronauts on board the International Space Station ISS are regularly supplied with the help of cargo capsules. But if we want to travel to Mars, neither large supplies nor continuous resupply are possible. The transport route is too hazardous and the costs are too high. The solution, therefore, lies in producing essential consumer goods from raw materials available locally.

Dr. Cyprien Verseux has already demonstrated that some cyanobacteria are able to produce oxygen and biomass from the natural resources of Mars. He obtained initial research findings at the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology (LASM), which he heads at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen.

The big question now is: how can this be done efficiently? To answer this, a better understanding of how cyanobacteria metabolize Martian resources at the cellular and molecular level is needed. This will be investigated, among other things, by means of laboratory experiments using specifically developed apparatus that uses little more than the raw materials from the Martian soil and atmosphere. In addition to the laboratory work, mathematical models will be developed to predict the growth rates, productivity, and efficiency of the bacterial cultures.

The European Research Council Starting Grant opens up new opportunities for Cyprien Verseux and his research team, especially by creating two doctoral positions. "With our project 'MarCyano', we set to achieve two goals. One is to gain some fundamental knowledge on cyanobacterial responses to environments which are alien to them, such as atmospheric conditions that do not exist on Earth. Another is to develop solutions which can help make the exploration of Mars by humans sustainable," he explains.

However, Verseux and his team are not only concerned with sustainability concepts for long-term missions to Mars. They will also transfer their findings and developed systems into new approaches and technologies that serve a more sustainable use of naturally occurring but increasingly scarce resources on Earth.

Verseux is a member of the “Humans on Mars” initiative and is involved in the application for the “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” excellence cluster at the University of Bremen. The interdisciplinary academic team benefits from his expertise, and their research could now help to secure excellence status for the University of Bremen once again.

About Cyprien Verseux:

Dr. Cyprien Verseux, a French biologist, has been conducting research at the University of Bremen's Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) since 2019. He set up the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology (LASM) there, and is head of a ZARM research group of the same name."

He has first-hand experience of exploration missions in remote areas: in 2018, he headed the French-Italian Concordia research station in the Antarctic. He spent a year there, including the winter months when temperatures can drop as low as minus 80°C and darkness lasts for months. In 2015, he took part in NASA's HI-SEAS Mars simulation project and lived in isolation with five scientists for a year in a “Mars station” on the barren slopes of the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, USA.

His academic achievements were honored in 2019 with a research fellowship from the renowned Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Further Information:

https://www.zarm.uni-bremen.de/en/research/researchindependent-groupshtml/laboratory-of-applied-space-microbiology.html
https://youtu.be/_lHsDTE1e0E?si=RvbTW4ooV742CV8w (Video about the LASM laboratory)
https://www.up2date.uni-bremen.de/en/article/on-a-mars-mission-from-cyanobacteria-to-bioplastics (up2date. article)
www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Jasmin Plättner
ZARM Communication Team
Email: jasmin.plaettner@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-57794

Dr. Cyprien Verseux
University of Bremen
Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM)
Email: cyprien.verseux@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-57830

Together with colleagues from ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity) the Humans on Mars initiative has taken this year's motto of “Explore Science” from the perspective of space exploration. The focus was on the challenge of scarce resources - vividly illustrated using the example of the red planet Mars.

With the help of VR goggles, visitors could take a look inside a Mars habitat at the hands-on station. Right next to it, the kids were able to explore a cratered Martian landscape with Ozobot robots. It was exciting for everyone to consider whether they could imagine living permanently on the Red Planet, which is so different from our livable Earth. It was surprising for the children and young people to learn that we can actually learn from the sparse planet Mars for the Earth, namely how we can use limited or even dwindling resources sustainably and efficiently thanks to the latest technologies.

A digression on scientific satellite missions, which help researchers around the world to observe the state of a planet, was not to be missed here. Using an interactive model of the GRACE mission, the pupils were able to try out how the two twin satellites continuously measure the Earth and detect changes such as glacial melting and rising sea levels.

With around 10,000 visitors, Explore Science 2024 was a complete success. We will be there again next year, when everything will revolve around the topic of “Future STEM”.

To the press release of the Klaus Tschira Foundation: www.explore-science.info/bremen/presse/2024-09-09/explore-science-begeistert-10-000-kinder-und-jugendliche

The visit also included a tour of the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), which is part of the Faculty of Production Engineering. The Drop Tower and the Extraterrestrial Habitation – MaMBA model were visited, a research project to simulate living conditions on Mars. Both are one-of-a-kind research infrastructures worldwide.
Professor Katharina Brinkert and Dr. Christiane Heinicke, both researchers in the “Martian Mindset” Excellence project, gave a tour of the facilities and explained why these are central in the Excellence application.

The second highlight was a tour of MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, led by Professor Michael Schulz. MARUM is the largest university marine research unit in Germany and home to the “Ocean Floor” Cluster of Excellence. Its technologies play a significant role in marine and climate research and underscore the excellent research landscape at the University of Bremen.

MARUM’s core repository is particularly impressive. It is the largest collection of its kind in the world and is used by researchers in Bremen and internationally. The sediment analyses conducted here are crucial for the validation and further development of existing climate models. In addition, the technical infrastructure for deep-sea research was presented. This includes MARUM-MeBo, a sea floor drilling rig; the remotely operated vehicle MARUM QUEST; and the new control container from which the deep-diving robot is to be controlled.

Author: Christina Selzer, link to press release of University of Bremen: HRK President Visits the University of Bremen

The focus of the visit was the newly applied for “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” Cluster of Excellence of the Materials Science and Technologies high-profile area, as well as the existing “The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface” Cluster of Excellence at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences.

During the tour, the innovative character of research at the university impressed Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte. In conversation with the academics, he gained an impression of what it means to take part in such a high-caliber funding competition.

Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte: “The achievements of the researchers at the University of Bremen are truly impressive. Not only because they are outstanding in academic terms, but also because they address existential questions concerning the future. I am absolutely convinced that the university is well equipped for the Excellence Competition. Now we need to keep our fingers crossed that we hold our own in the national contest."

President Professor Jutta Günther: “At the University of Bremen, we do not pursue excellence for the sake of excellence, but out of a sense of social responsibility. Our cutting-edge research in the Cluster of Excellence teams in the fields of materials and marine sciences contributes significantly to the pressing problems of our time. As the university management, we are proud of what we have achieved so far in the Excellence Competition and are delighted that the mayor is acknowledging our top researchers with his visit. They are representative of all the University of Bremen members who make indispensable and valuable contributions to academia and society with their outstanding research.”

At the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), the MaMBA – Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA laboratory) – was viewed. In the coming years, the facility is to expand and encompass a complex for testing production processes under Martian conditions. Both facilities are unique research infrastructures worldwide.

This was followed by a visit to the Bremen Institute for Mechanical Engineering (bime), headed by Professor Kirsten Tracht. The testing of low-threshold and interactive exhibits illustrated the potential of technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, as well as their possible applications in production scenarios on Mars.

Article from Kai Uwe Bohn, University of Bremen, translation by Britta Plote.

Daniel Meyer came to Bremen to study biology. As luck would have it, he found a job as a student assistant at the Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering – IWT. “One of my tasks was to examine the cooling lubricants of the many machine tools – milky emulsions used in machining processes. The biology student’s expertise was needed to check the condition of the lubricants.

He soon became interested in the other processes at the institute and at the Faculty of Production Engineering. He gained insight into various processes such as turning, milling, drilling, and grinding, and was introduced to new technical equipment and exciting research. But first he completed his biology degree and then worked in cancer research at the Center for Human Genetics at the University of Bremen. In 2006, he joined the Leibniz-IWT as a research assistant.

From Biology Major to Engineer

It was there that Daniel Meyer was trained as an engineer by his boss at the time, Professor Ekkard Brinksmeier. For Meyer, it was a 180-degree turn. “An unusual path – as if a 100-meter runner suddenly switches to pole vaulting,” he states. While biology involves working with chemicals and cells in the laboratory, Meyer spent the five years leading up to his doctorate working intensively on various production processes.

One example of this was precision drilling, which is particularly important in aviation. “In an aircraft, a lot of holes have to be drilled very accurately,” explains Meyer. The customers for such research projects were often large companies such as Airbus or their suppliers. In addition to drilling, he also worked with milling, turning, and grinding tools.

Optimization of Material Properties

At Leibniz-IWT, the focus is usually on processing materials such as steel, titanium, or nickel-based alloys. “When we shape the materials by turning, milling, or drilling, we also change their properties,” explains Meyer. Some of these changes are visible, such as rough or smooth surfaces. But there are also invisible effects. The surfaces can become harder as a result of the machining and therefore last longer when subjected to stress, such as vibration. Meyer has studied these complex relationships in detail.

He is particularly proud of the fact that he was able to contribute his expertise in biology to his habilitation. This is because cooling lubricants, which play an important role in manufacturing, influence the machining processes and thus the properties of the workpieces. This special focus is also reflected in the title of his Ph.D. thesis: “Production-related modifications in the near-surface area – consequences of the interaction of process and material.” A unique topic that no one had ever dealt with in such depth before.

An example illustrates Daniel Meyer’s research by showing how material properties change when processed. If you bend a paperclip back and forth several times, the bending point becomes hot, and at some point the paperclip will break at that point. “This means we have changed the material properties through deformation, because where the material breaks, it has previously solidified and become fatigued,” explains Meyer. Particularly in safety-relevant areas, it is important that components have a long service life and do not break prematurely. Through targeted processing, certain properties can be introduced into the material to extend its lifespan – for example, greater hardness, a smoother surface, or optimized residual compressive stress.

Residual Stresses and Their Significance

A simple example of residual stresses can be observed in the kitchen. When carrots are cut lengthwise, the thin sticks often take on a slightly curved shape – similar to bananas. “This is a result of residual stresses,” explains Meyer. “This kind of stress is also present in metals, and we can influence it in a targeted way.” This means that the properties of the materials can be decisively influenced at the material processing stage in order to optimize them for the challenges of their intended applications. “By using various manufacturing processes to influence the outermost 50 micrometres of a metallic surface – roughly the diameter of a human hair – we can make it significantly more resistant.”

The results of his research may prove particularly important in industries where the longevity of components is crucial – for example, wind energy. “When a wind turbine rotates, countless components are subjected to repeated vibrations – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” he explains. In a car engine, several thousand revolutions per minute mean several thousand load cases. And in aviation, components are subjected to extreme loads during take-off and landing. In all these areas, the manufacturing processes are crucial to ensuring that the components used can be relied upon to function flawlessly when in use.

New Challenges on Mars

Daniel Meyer’s interdisciplinary knowledge is now very useful to him in the “Humans on Mars” research initiative. He is involved in “The Martian Perspective: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bremen. The interdisciplinary academic team benefits from the particular expertise of the biologist and production engineer, and their research could now help to secure Excellence status for the University of Bremen once again.

“Imagine people staying on Mars for a longer period of time. They won’t be able to take everything they need with them,” Daniel Meyer states. “There won’t be any high bay warehouses with all kinds of spare parts. Supplies will take two years to get to Mars.” If something needs to be replaced quickly, the Martians will have to manufacture the missing part themselves.

The research alliance has already developed a number of promising methods for making do with the resources that are available on Mars. “There is not much up there. So the question is: How do we turn Martian dust into raw materials?” When it comes to using these raw materials to manufacture components, Daniel Meyer’s expertise comes into play. He is in charge of the cluster’s “Research Area Processing” and he knows, “The raw materials on Mars will be contaminated. There will be no completely pure materials like on Earth.”

The task of his research area is to develop, adapt, and control processes in such a way that functional components can be manufactured from the raw materials. “We will have to adapt processes to the conditions there – and find solutions that will work on Mars.” The great thing about this research is that we also learn a lot about how to use it on Earth. We might not have learnt that without the Martian initiative. “One example is recycling. We will have to recycle more and more materials in the future. This will result in an increasing amount of impure materials. We are already researching in our Mars project how we can continue to use these materials efficiently.”

Read full article here at up2date, the online magazine from University of Bremen.

In the Humans on Mars initiative, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Armin Dekorsy is working on research into semantic communication to connect people and machines for the operation of material production technologies on Mars.

More about Science goes Public: Programme Science goes Public!

Special thanks go to Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte, Mayor and President of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Kathrin Moosdorf, The Senator for the Environment, Climate and Science, Kristina Vogt, Senator for Economics, Ports and Transformation and Prof. Jutta Günther, President of the Universität Bremen, for the official opening of our stand, your support means a lot to us!

Also, thanks for representing the research team behind the proposal, Prof. Marc Avila and Prof. Kirsten Tracht, spokespersons for the “Humans on Mars” initiative.

Several thousand trade visitors from industry and research attended. And as the trade fair is free of charge, many school and university students came to visit again this year. At the stand of the University of Bremen, the PhDs of the Humans on Mars Initiative got into conversation with many students and interested visitors.

Abootaleb Safdari is part of the Humans on Mars initiative and researches the philosophical aspect of space exploration. 

More about Science goes Public: Programme Science goes Public!

The future laboratory is an important new research infrastructure for the Humans on Mars initiative. Research performed there will enable groundbreaking extraterrestrial space research, while also driving the development of sustainable technologies for the Earth. The entire Mars laboratory will be completed in 2028, with individual modules and functions being usable as early as 2026.

By implementing the plans for the Mars laboratory, Bremen will have created a worldwide one-of-a-kind simulation environment for examining extreme environmental conditions and resource scarcity. The Mars laboratory will establish entire process chains and production facilities with the conditions found on Mars – a lack of breathable air and fossil fuels, limited water supplies, and a very limited number of workers. Examples of the planned processes include creating bio-plastics using the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, and having small teams of humans and robots produce components to conserve resources.

“This approach helps us to not only meet the challenges on Mars, but also develop innovative solutions for the Earth,” says Professor Marc Avila, ZARM director and spokesperson for the Humans on Mars initiative. “The Mars laboratory is intended to drive innovation for the production of materials and components under the premise of extremely scarce resources. It is operated together with experts from materials science, production technology, and robotics and can also be used by scientists from other research institutes or industry to test processes under Martian conditions.”

The new Mars laboratory also forms one of the central research infrastructures for the Cluster of Excellence “The Mars Perspective: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm.” The Cluster of Excellence application was successful in the first selection round of the highly competitive DFG funding strategy. If the final funding decision in May 2025 is also positive, an interdisciplinary consortium of 25 Bremen scientists will conduct innovative foundation research in the Mars Laboratory beginning on January 1, 2026.

Smart Living Lab: Smart Port of the Future

Bremen’s ports will also receive 2.8 million euros in funding. The EU is supporting a Smartport Living Lab, with which five research institutes from Bremen and Bremerhaven want to jointly develop innovative solutions for the digitized port of the future.
Bremen’s ports are facing a variety of challenges. In order to remain competitive, port processes must be digitized and automated. The Bremen port industry has been working with Bremen’s researchers for many years.
With the funding, researchers want to procure systems such as drones and walking robots for monitoring the condition of the port superstructure or an autonomous ship demonstrator. Intelligently networking these systems using a collaborative platform will optimize port processes and increase the safety and resilience of (digital) infrastructures in maritime logistics. To this end, the researchers want to apply for and work on projects together with the port industry so that they can put their scientific findings into practice as quickly as possible.

The project involves the Bremen research institutions Bremen Institute for Production and Logistics (BIBA), the Institute for Maritime Economics and Logistics (ISL), TOPAS Industrial Mathematics Innovation, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bremerhaven.
The Bremen institutes have been working together for many years in the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics (LogDynamics) research network.

“One of our main topics is the digitization of maritime logistics,” says LogDynamics spokesperson Prof. Michael Freitag. Building on previous activities such as joint projects and a concept study on the Smartport of the future, the Smartport Living Lab will now build a laboratory infrastructure with innovative port technologies. “The pledge for funding comes at exactly the right time,” Friday continued, “because we have just started building our innovation community Smartport Transfer, which will receive 5 million euros in BMBF funding as part of DATIpilot. The new Smartport Living Lab will become an important building block of this community.”

Press release of the University of Bremen: Millions in Funding for Space and Port Research - Universität Bremen

The group went on a tour of the University of Bremen campus and was welcomed at the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) by the institute's director, Katharina Brinkert. Here, visitors were given an insight into the institute's research, where they were also able to observe a test in the drop tower. Kirsten Tracht then welcomed the visitors to the Bremen Institute of Structural Mechanics and Production Systems (bime) and showed them the future of production - including a new rover. In terms of content, Daniel Meyer closed the loop and presented how he processes metal surfaces at the Leibniz Institute for Materials-Oriented Technologies (IWT) and is researching how to produce functioning components from raw materials for the cluster application.

We would like to thank our visitors for their interest in our research and the exciting exchange of ideas!

Most people think talk of humans one day living on Mars sounds like science fiction. This is not the case for those who research with Marc Avila, professor for fluid mechanics and CEO of ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Gravity) at the University of Bremen. His team is hoping that the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments will provide them with the means to evaluate which specific conditions would be necessary to enable human life on Mars. For over four years, they have been working on their Martian Mindset proposal. A decision on whether this cluster will receive funding will be made in May. Marc Avila, co-spokesperson of the cluster initiative, explains what draws him to Mars research, why interdisciplinary research is so essential to his work, and what distinguishes the Mars lab in Bremen from others.

Mr. Avila, what motivated you to focus on Mars research?

I have been fascinated by space since childhood, inspired by books about astronomy and the first photos of Mars, which were taken by the Viking 1 and 2 space probes a few years before I was born. After graduating from high school, I studied mathematics and earned a doctoral degree in fluid mechanics. In 2016, I saw a job advertisement at the University of Bremen for a professorship in fluid mechanics combined with overseeing ZARM. The opportunity to do intensive space and Mars research appealed to me.

What interests you most about Mars?

Mars is so similar to the Earth, and yet completely different. The laws of nature are the same as they are here, and it is one of the few planets that could theoretically sustain human life. At the same time, life there would be fundamentally different from here. The gravitational pull is a third of the Earth’s, the average temperature is roughly -60 C, and we wouldn’t be able to breathe on our own. All of this and much more factors into our considerations about life on Mars.

The title of your proposal is “The Martian Mindset.” What mindset does one need in order to survive on Mars?

This mindset is that materials are scarce. All resources, including water, commodities, energy, and workers, are scarcer on Mars than on Earth. At the same time, on Earth, and in Europe in particular, we are noticing that our resources are limited. Which means that this research is relevant for Earth as well – this was the convincing argument when we formed the final proposal idea two years ago.

Who was part of the team that developed this proposal?

We developed the first rough ideas for the proposal four years ago at the University of Bremen’s MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes. However, we noticed quickly that we needed expertise in other scientific areas in addition to engineering. The University of Bremen is well established in space research and we were soon able to recruit researchers from various faculties to work on our proposal with us, which resulted in our team expanding to include over 25 people. Together, and with the support of Bremen State, we started the Humans on Mars initiative, which was a predecessor for the Martian Mindset. The proposal process is lengthy and consists of many steps. In May 2023, we submitted a draft proposal, which was evaluated by a scientific committee of the DFG. In February 2024, we celebrated our first partial success. As one of 41 teams submitting proposals nationwide, we were asked to submit a full proposal. Whether we actually receive this funding will be decided on May 22.

Does your team’s interdisciplinary structure reflect the overall nature of Mars research?

On the one hand, Mars research is inherently interdisciplinary, since there are so many ways to approach it. Astrobiologists focus on the microorganisms that could be helpful on Mars. Process engineers examine the production of aluminum based on Martian dust, and geophysicists and astrophysicists research the space environment, for example the radiation and processes that turned Mars into a desert. However, these scientific fields usually work largely independent of each other. I am not aware of any other initiatives in Mars research that involves so many disciplines working together so closely. Interdisciplinary approaches are our hallmark.

What have you learned from researchers in other fields?

The insights into work psychology have been particularly interesting. In a Martian environment, humans would face unique challenges in making decisions, because the processes are much more complex and lengthy than they are here. If a machine malfunctioned outside the habitat, it would take 45 minutes to put on a spacesuit and go outside. Would they actually venture out, potentially risking their lives, or would they navigate a robot to repair the machine? What information or advice from AI would they need in order to decide between these two options? How would they make this decision if there was no or little information available? I find these considerations fascinating.

What infrastructure is available in Bremen for your research?

Bremen has been strong in space research for years, which means that we have access to existing infrastructure such as the Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA), a simulated Mars habitat, and the GraviTower Bremen Pro, which can simulate Martian gravitational conditions. At the beginning of the year, the Bremen Senate provided 3.7 million euros in additional funding from the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRE) for developing a Mars lab. Our plan is for parts of this to be operational in 2026 and for its completion in 2028.

What possibilities does the Mars lab offer?

It will consist of two different parts. In the first part, we will have two vacuum chambers that simulate living conditions on Mars, including temperature, air pressure, and atmospheric makeup. One of the rooms will also contain imitation Mars dust. We will watch how machines work under these conditions and how we can make them more robust. In the second part, we want to simulate the collaboration between humans, robots, and machines in a production facility. We want to incorporate the MaMBA in this lab, and we will also build a manufacturing hall. We will then test the feasibility of machines and robots being controlled when they are outside the habitat. Simulation of remote-controlled processes is new and unique in Mars research globally.

Further information

ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Gravity)

MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes

Humans on Mars initiative

The answer seems clear, but if you look a little closer, you will find many interesting challenges. At ZARM, Camilla Tossi and her colleagues research how chemical reactions like splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen work under microgravity. They use solar light as an energy source to further develop these processes and to secure that the oxygen can indeed be provided.

The project is part of the Humans on Mars initiative and has now been presented to the public at the “Wiener” bar for the first time.

More about the program of the Science goes Public series here.

Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer, who has accompanied the teams in the application preparation, is also extremely pleased: “This is an absolute team effort. To steadily improve in such a competitive and long selection process, which extends over two and a half years, and to convince the evaluating bodies several times over deserves great respect. This is only possible if everyone works together and makes their contribution at the right moment.”

The German Research Foundation (DFG) announced the funding decision for the new Clusters of Excellence on May 22. From January 1, 2026, the Clusters of Excellence “The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface” and “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” at the University of Bremen will receive funding.

“It was a moment of great joy,” says Bremen's Senator for Environment, Climate, and Science, Kathrin Moosdorf, who attended the selection meeting in Bonn as a federal state representative: “The fact that both MARUM and MAPEX are being supported as part of the Excellence Strategy is proof of Bremen's high caliber as an academic location. We have excellent researchers, outstanding research conditions, and a special research spirit in Bremen. I would like to thank everyone involved for making this great success possible.”

“The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface”: MARUM Delighted with Renewed Excellence Funding

For more than two decades, MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has been conducting cutting-edge research as part of the Excellence Strategy. “At MARUM we are delighted about the positive funding decision! With this success, we can continue to innovatively develop our efforts to promoting scientific discoveries and supporting early-career researchers,” says Professor Heiko Pälike, designated spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence for the second funding phase, which begins on January 1, 2026. “The result is also special because there was an exceptional field of applicants.”

The ocean floor is being studied as an interface that has far-reaching functions for the entire Earth system. This involves, for example, deciphering the processes that control the transport of biogenic particles such as algal remains, pollen, or microorganisms to the ocean floor and their transformation under changing environmental conditions, balancing the transfer of carbon and other elements between the ocean floor and seawater, or understanding how ecosystems on the ocean floor react to environmental changes. Due to the scientific and technological complexity, the implementation of the cluster's objectives requires an interdisciplinary research network. In the funding phase that has now been approved, researchers from the University of Bremen will be working together with scientists from the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. They are pooling their expertise to further decode the role of the ocean floor for material cycles and biodiversity under changing climatic conditions.

Other cooperating partners in the region are the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB), the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPIMM), Constructor University, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), and the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst.

“We are grateful for the support of our employees, the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony, and our international cooperation partners. This renewed success would not have been possible without their commitment and partnership,” emphasizes Professor Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, Director of MARUM. “We look forward to continuing to contribute to society with our joint research in the future.”

“The Martian Mindset – A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm”: MAPEX Brings New Cluster of Excellence to Bremen

The scientists at MAPEX – Center for Materials and Processes are also thrilled. Professor Marc Avila, designated co-spokesperson of the cluster: “We see the funding as recognition of our four years of hard work. We now have new opportunities that will enable us to tackle the socially highly relevant and future-oriented topic of resource scarcity and the development of sustainable production technologies with all our strength. Our thanks go to Bremen State and the University of Bremen, who have placed their trust in our academic expertise in the fields of materials science, exploration research, production engineering, and space technology from the very beginning. In this respect, the funding of the Cluster of Excellence is an award for Bremen as a scientific and aerospace location."

The scientists are adopting the “Martian mindset” in order to rethink the production of materials and components from the ground up. The scarcity of resources and extreme conditions on the red planet serve as an experimental setting to develop a new paradigm of sustainability that enables innovative resource and energy-saving processes for material extraction and processing. In the long term, the cluster will thus contribute to sustainable space exploration and, above all, drive green change on Earth.

To simulate this scenario, the researchers are imposing scarcity on themselves in four dimensions, for which they are developing solutions in the cluster: Limited raw materials, limited electrical energy, limited labor, and limited information. Taking these framework conditions into account, three scientific objectives are being pursued: Firstly, the development of (bio)electrochemical methods that do not require fossil fuels and can be used to extract metals, plastics, and other (vital) raw materials such as oxygen even from low-grade starting materials. Secondly, the experimental demonstration of low-energy process chains with which a range of components of sufficient quality (“enough-to-use”) can be produced from the raw materials obtained. Thirdly, the design of novel operating concepts for production systems that are operated jointly by small teams of humans and robots under great uncertainty and with limited information.

“The Martian Mindset” is intended to create the conditions for highly automated, resource-saving production of materials and components that is independent of fossil fuels. “The cluster is thus making a contribution both to the exploration of Mars and, above all, to the development of innovative technologies for the benefit of Earth,” says co-spokesperson Professor Kirsten Tracht. “The funding will allow our interdisciplinary team to break completely new ground with a disruptive research approach. Our goal is to radically rethink sustainability and apply this knowledge not only in academia but also in practice. On the one hand, we want to work with industry to achieve this. On the other hand, together with daycare centers and schools, we will initiate a transfer of knowledge that will enable future generations to shape a sustainable future.”

The cooperating partners are the Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering – IWT, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, and the MATENA innovate! Center.

Green Light for “University of Excellence” Competition: Best Possible Starting Position for the Bremen-Oldenburg Northwest Alliance

Following the Cluster of Excellence decision, it is now also clear how the University of Bremen will proceed in the Excellence competition: “The Clusters of Excellence we have acquired are the entry ticket for the competition – together with the University of Oldenburg – for the title of ‘University of Excellence.’ We have been hoping for this all along,” explains President Jutta Günther. “As we have been working intensively with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg for some time now, we are well prepared. The great success today shows how sustainable our cooperation is. I would like to congratulate the University of Oldenburg, which was also successful across the board today!”

The aim is to develop a joint vision that is underpinned by various institutional projects at both universities. The University of Excellence applications will be submitted in November of this year and reviewed next spring. A decision will be made in fall 2026.

Further Information:

"The Ocean Floor” Excellence Cluster: https://www.marum.de/en/The-Ocean-Floor.html

“The Martian Mindset” Excellence Cluster: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

Northwest Alliance: https://northwest-alliance.de/en/

Excellence Strategy of the German federal & state governments: https://www.exzellenzstrategie.de/en/

Contact:

President

Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther
Phone: +49 421 218-60011
Email: rektorinuni-bremen.de

Spokespersons of “The Martian Mindset” Excellence Cluster

Prof. Dr. Marc Avila
Phone: +49 421 218-57826
Email: directoratezarm.uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kirsten Tracht
Phone: +49 421 218-64840
Email: trachtbime.de

Spokesperson of “The Ocean Floor” Excellence Cluster

Prof. Dr. Heiko Pälike
Phone: +49 421 218-65980
Email: hpaelikemarum.de

Author: Christina Selzer

We are delighted that our scientists Prof. Dr. Katharina Brinkert, Dr. Christiane Heinicke and Dr. Abootaleb Safdari were able to contribute to this successful exhibition and would like to thank the team at the German Emigration Center for the exciting collaboration!

You can find more information about the content of the exhibition on the museum's website: https://dah-bremerhaven.de/en/news/the-lure-of-outer-space 

The exhibit shows what a human-inhabited basis on the surface of Mars could look like in the future. The cylindrical modules form the habitat. This is where scientific experiments are carried out, food is grown, and people live. The square building next to it is a production hall. It will be used to manufacture materials and components from the extremely scarce resources on Mars that cannot be brought from Earth due to the great distance. Such a facility is currently being set up at the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM): a production hall, two thermal vacuum chambers, and a habitat module including a control room and airlock will be available for research purposes in the future.

Entry is free, and the exhibition can be viewed in downtown Bremen until the end of November.

Looking ahead, the cluster of excellence The Martian Mindset is participating with a model of Mars: The exhibit shows what a human-inhabited base on the surface of Mars could look like in the future. The cylindrical modules form the habitat. This is where scientific experiments are carried out, food is grown, and people live. The square building next to it is a production hall. It will be used to manufacture materials and components that cannot be brought from Earth due to the great distance, using the extremely scarce resources available on Mars.