Austria is small, fine and agile in space research. JR Managing Director Heinz Mayer says that "we are not internationally visible because we are in Austria, but because of our competence". The other speakers at the event, whose presentations ranged from satellite communications and 3D visualizations of the surface of Mars to weather forecasts on extrasolar planets, agreed with this. All talks showed terrestrial applications of space exploration technologies which drive the Austrian economy.
"Space is fantastic and paves the way to education," said Christiane Helling, director of the Institute for Space Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). But "you can't get anywhere without fundamental education," Helling said, which is why science and research must become more attractive to young people. Margit Mischkulnig, department head for space affairs at the BMK, insisted that the loudspeaker for the knowledge field of space simply has to become bigger. The topics do not reach the population to the corresponding extent. Gerd Hesina, CEO of VRVis, echoed this argument, supporting that space needs to be comprehensible and connected to applications that drive practical development on Earth.
Armin Scheinost, who heads the Aerospace division at Magna Steyr, explained how this can work. He relies on lighthouse projects that inspire. Andreas Geisler, head of the Aerospace Agency of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), confirmed that this is being done well in Austria by attesting to Austria's excellent competitiveness. Austria publishes at least as well as Germany, Geisler said.
Roland Perko, DIGITAL Research Group Leader of Remote Sensing and Geoinformation, explained how the effects of climate change on forests can be made visible and assessable through systematic evaluation of satellite images. Christoph Traxler, Area Coordinator for Smart Worlds at VRVis, and Gerhard Paar, Key Researcher at JOANNEUM RESEARCH, visualize the surface of Mars for geologists. Both used various examples to illustrate what technology can be translated from the Mars use case using PRoViP and PRo3D software to quality management in tunneling. Michael Schmidt, Key Researcher at DIGITAL, presented how broadband connections for high-power satellites and households are interrelated. DIGITAL Director Matthias Rüther led the discussion, Gerhard Paar provided the musical accompaniment.
Graz, 4th October 2022
Area Coordinator Smart Worlds & Head of GeoSMAQ, Geospatial Visualization, Semantic Modelling, and Acquisition Group
traxler(at)vrvis.at +43 1 908 98 92 520
In the PROVEX project, JOANNEUM Research and VRVis are developing a provenance-aware workflow management tool for heterogeneous data for use in ESA's HERA mission.
PanCam-3D focuses on the further development of interactive 3D visualizations for the ExoMars 2022 mission.
WIBSTAC addresses the usage of wide baseline stereo 3D reconstruction for medium- and long-range mapping of the Martian surface, based on imagery from panoramic rover camera instruments.
The "Mars-DL" project is investigating how a deep learning system can support the research work of planetary scientists through object and pattern recognition. For this project VRVis has extended the functionality of PRo3D to automatically render shatter cone training images.
Support for planetary research: Visual analysis of reconstructions of the Mars surface and view planning for rover camera instruments.
Visual Analysis of Asteroid Deflection.
Virtual exploration and geological analysis of reconstructed Mars surfaces and rock outcrops.
MINERVA is an integrated framework for planetary scientists allowing members of different instrument teams to cooperate synergistically in virtual workspaces by sharing observations, analyses and annotations of heterogonous mission data.
