Humans on Mars had sent two young researchers to introduce Bremen's educational opportunities to IAC visitors at the University of Bremen booth in cooperation with ZARM and the City of Bremen.

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)