Matthias Maurer | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Born | (1970-03-18)18 March 1970 (age 55) |
| Status | Active |
| Occupations | |
| Space career | |
| ESA astronaut | |
Time in space | 176 days, 2 hours, 39 minutes |
TotalEVAs | 1 |
Total EVA time | 6 hours, 54 minutes |
| Missions | SpaceX Crew-3 (Expedition 66/67) |
Mission insignia |    |
| Website | matthiasmaurer |
Matthias Josef Maurer (born 18 March 1970) is a GermanESA astronaut andmaterials scientist, who was selected in 2015 to take part in space training.
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Maurer graduated fromGymnasium Wendalinum [de] inSankt Wendel,Saarland, in 1989.)[1][2] He then began his compulsory civilian service as a paramedic with the Malteser Emergency Service. Afterwards he studied materials science and technology atSaarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, the EEIGM (École européenne d'ingénieurs en génie des matériaux, "European School for Materials Technology", part of the Université de Lorraine) in Nancy, France, theUniversity of Leeds, UK, and at thePolytechnic University of Catalonia (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) in Barcelona, Spain. From 1999 to 2004, Maurer completed his doctorate at the Institute of Materials Sciences of theRWTH Aachen University, Germany, where he received hisengineering doctorate (Dr.-Ing.). His dissertation titled "Lightweight composites made of aluminium foam with thermally sprayed coatings" won him several scientific prizes. After completing his doctorate, Maurer undertook a long-term trip around the world. In 2006, Maurer successfully completed an additional course of study in economics at theUniversity of Hagen with anMBA management degree.[3]
Maurer holds several patents in the field of materials science and materials engineering. He is fluent in four languages (German,English,Spanish,French) and as part of his astronaut training, he is also taking intensive language training inRussian andChinese.
Maurer applied to the European Space Agency as an astronaut in 2008 with almost 8500 other candidates and was one of ten to pass the selection procedure, but was not initially appointed to the European Astronaut Corps. In 2010 he started working for theEuropean Space Agency as a crew support engineer andeurocom for theColumbus flight control team at theEuropean Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. Before he formally joined theEuropean Astronaut Corps in July 2015, Maurer took a lead role in ESA Astronaut Centre projects to prepare for future spaceflight and lunar operations with new international partners and extend the Agency's human exploration expertise beyond theInternational Space Station.[4]
In 2014, he took part in theESA Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising Human Behaviour and Performance Skills program and in 2016 he was part of theNASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 21 analog mission, an underwater training programme for future ISS crews in Florida[5] as well as the firstESA PANGAEA mission, a field geology and astrobiology training programme by theEuropean Space Agency. In March 2018, he gained certification to perform International Space Station-relatedspacewalks in the American spacesuitEMU. In 2018 he also graduated from both basic astronaut training and pre-assignment training and thus became fully certified to go to space.[6]
In 2017, theEuropean Space Agency (ESA) started human spaceflight training withChina Manned Space Agency, with the ultimate goal of sending ESA astronauts toTiangong space station.[7] To prepare for the future missions, Matthias Maurer and other selected ESA astronauts lived together with their Chinese counterparts and engaged in training sessions such as splashes-down survival, language learning, andShenzhou spacecraft operations.[8][9] However, in January 2023, ESA announced that the agency will not send its astronauts to China's space station due to political and financial reasons.[10]
On 12 May 2020 he arrived at theJohnson Space Center inTexas alongside ESA astronautThomas Pesquet and Russian cosmonautsSergey Ryzhikov,Sergey Kud-Sverchkov,Oleg Novitsky andPyotr Dubrov for training amidst theCOVID-19 pandemic.[11]
On 28 July 2020, Maurer was announced as a backup crew member forThomas Pesquet onSpaceX Crew-2.On 14 December 2020, ESA announced a competition to name Maurer's mission; the winner would be announced in summer 2020 and will receive a signed mission patch flown to the ISS by Matthias. Prior to his mission assignment, Matthias was based at ESA’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany where he was project managing the development of a new ESA Moon simulation facility known as Luna.[12]
On 14 December 2020, Maurer was officially assigned to theSpaceX Crew-3 mission, which launched on 10 November 2021.[13] A few hours before the announcement, Maurer revealed his second mission name asCosmic Kiss, after theNebra sky disk, the oldest known realistic illustration of the night sky. He traveled to the International Space Station alongsideNASA astronautsRaja Chari, who commanded theCrew Dragon,Thomas Marshburn, as the pilot, and mission specialistKayla Barron. Once on board the station, they joined Expedition 66. This mission made him the twelfthGerman astronaut afterAlexander Gerst in 2018.
As part of Expedition 66, Maurer and Chari installed ammonia jumpers on the P1 Truss and repositioned a radiator beam valve module which had been giving them trouble returning the unit to operation. The astronauts routed cables, installed cable clamps on theBartolomeo platform, tied back thermal insulation on theKibo Exposed Facility Berthing Mechanism, replaced Camera 8 on the truss which has a bad filter and light, outfitted the radiator grapple bars for a future spacewalk, and also did other maintenance task outside the station. Because of time the task to break torque on the P4 electronics boxes was moved to a later spacewalk along with the truss cable routing.[14][15][16]
Crew-3 landed in theGulf of Mexico on 6 May 2022, after 176 days in space.[17] For this expedition Maurer along with the other crewmembers were awarded theNASA Distinguished Public Service Medal and theSpace Exploration Medal.[18]
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