At 3 am, the space capsule reaches its destination. The students have been waiting for 12 hours; five of them crammed into 15 sq m. They have munched on freeze-dried meals and slept on cots. Now, Pritha and her crew put on their space suits and open the capsule door. It is dark; the stars shine above. In the heavy boots of her suit, Pritha feels her way across the stony ground and steps onto a patch of alpine meadow.

Pritha Jaipal, 23, is a researcher at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. This summer, she took part in an extraordinary experiment: the student lunar mission Asclepios VI. Her crew did not travel to the moon’s south pole, but to Ticino in the Swiss Alps.

Nine students spent two weeks in July at the Gotthard Fortress in Ticino, without daylight, cut off from the outside world. They were only connected by radio to a space control centre, which was also staffed by students.

The international Asclepios project aims to give participants a taste of what life on a lunar base might be like. What lies behind this idea of sending students to the moon: serious scientific endeavour, or a role-play for space enthusiasts?

The dress rehearsal for the mission is taking place on the campus of the technical university École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. The small-scale simulation over 24 hours serves to test procedures and iron out any problems. A workroom in the aerospace faculty serves as a mini-lunar base.

The students have travelled from near and far. Pritha has arrived from Bengaluru. She studied electronics and communication engineering in Manipal. At IISc, she is researching AI-assisted early detection of gestational diabetes.

Her passion is space. “I remember the moment in first grade when our teacher explained the solar system,” she recalls, beaming. “My world expanded: beyond what we can see with the naked eye, there is a whole universe.” During her studies, she joined a team developing Mars rovers. At a competition, she met the EPFL team, and that is how she came across Asclepios. Out of 175 applicants, only she and eight others made it through the five rounds of selection.

Over the past year, she has travelled to Europe time and again to take part in the selection rounds and training sessions. She dreams of becoming an astronaut. The analogue mission is a first taste of what may lie ahead.

The students built the space suit themselves: an aluminium frame with hinges, lined on the inside with aluminium foil, held together with staples and Velcro. It has been in use since the very first mission, and its age shows.

The airlock of the lunar base consists of bin bags taped together, hanging in front of the entrance door. A student is busy covering the room’s large windows with aluminium foil. The setup is improvised; yet, at the same time, everything has been thought through to the last detail.

The lunar mission

Asclepios was founded in 2019. Since 2021, the organisation has been conducting a lunar mission every year. The project is run entirely by students, with a total of around 120 members from all over the world. It is a non-profit, funded by grants, donations, and sponsored equipment. Altogether, the cost of a mission amounts to around 100,000 euros. The students contribute on a voluntary basis without remuneration.

The lunar base is fully set up, followed by an hour-long briefing. The entire crew is gathered in a seminar room to go through the schedule. Space is hard; according to a well-known adage in the industry, it is an extreme environment that forgives no mistakes. This also applies, it turns out, to a simulated student moon mission on earth.

For months, the teams have been meeting online to prepare pages of protocols for experiments, extra-vehicular activities, and medical emergencies. Every minute is scheduled in spreadsheets, from the astronauts’ morning trainings to their meals.

Pritha dreams of becoming an astronaut. The analogue mission is a first taste of what may lie ahead.
| Photo Credit:
Jessica Dreier

Then it begins. The astronauts head into the lunar base; the door closes behind them.

The student space control centre (Mission Control Centre or MCC in short) is set up in a seminar room, with rows of tables arranged in a U-shape. Radio contact with the lunar base is established; the students exchange information in telegram-style sentences filled with abbreviations: Capcom, EVA, SOP, OHP. The students are fluent in the language of spaceflight. The radio transmission is delayed by six seconds to simulate the actual delay in communication between the moon and earth.

The astronauts at the lunar base are busy: Pritha is doing exercises on the floor, Marla is testing the VR headset, and Ludwig is working on his laptop on the sofa.

The next morning begins with a stress test. A loudspeaker has been set up outside the door to the lunar base, waking the astronauts with a blaring siren. The crew receives instructions via radio: sensors have detected a dangerous rise in CO₂ levels in the lunar base. What to do?

The astronauts follow the emergency protocol: they switch off all electrical appliances and lights, and put on headlamps. In the dark, they stumble through the workroom, searching for sources of fire. A short while later, the MCC gives the all-clear. Exercise passed.

But not everything goes as planned. A radio message comes in at the MCC.

Lunar base: “There’s an alien going through some of our stuff. Over.”

A student from the faculty, who is not involved in the project and ignored the sign on the door, stands in the middle of the workspace which serves as the lunar base. He pays no further attention to the astronauts and rummages through the shelves.

MCC: “Please ignore the alien. He’s friendly, do not harm him. Over.”

Laughter at the MCC. For all its discipline and methodical seriousness, this student space mission is also marked by playfulness. A short while later, the intruder disappears from the lunar base, and the mission continues.

The dress rehearsal ends punctually at 1 pm; the crew leaves the base to applause. The test run was a success, apart from delays to the schedule and problems with the radio channels—nothing that could not be ironed out before the actual mission.

Simulated missions are an important intermediate step between theory and practice in space exploration: even the Apollo astronauts trained in the Grand Canyon, for example, to simulate their stay on the moon before setting off for the real moon.

Rocky landscape and lava tubes

The big day is in mid-July. The students gather at the Gotthard Pass in the heart of the rugged Alps. A brilliant blue sky, a picture-postcard scene. The Gotthard Fortress was carved from the rocks by the Swiss military during the Second World War.

Pritha greets the others like old-school friends. Laden with heavy rucksacks, they set off into the heart of the alpine fortress.

She has a 20-hour journey behind her, travelling from Bengaluru via Frankfurt and Zurich. “I can feel the jet lag,” she admits with a smile, “but I’m used to it by now.” This is the sixth time she has flown from India to Europe for the experiment: Lausanne, Munich, Nice, Lausanne again, Milan, and now the Gotthard Pass. “These are my first trips overseas,” she says. She covers most of the travel costs herself, drawing on the savings from her student job as a software developer for Philips; her father also supports her.

“My parents are the first generation to leave farming behind,” says Pritha. Both had moved to the city to study. Her father is an electrical engineer, her mother is a chemist. “They worked hard so that I could pursue my passion,” she says. Just before her departure from Bengaluru, Pritha’s mother helped her attach the Asclepios patch to her jacket. Pritha is also carrying a plush tiger called Stripes with her, a gift from her little sister, as well as Shubanshu Shukla’s autobiography, The Second Orbit.

Right now, she is rehearsing an outdoor scene with her US colleague Andrew: the pair trudge cautiously through the rocky landscape in spacesuits, like characters from a science-fiction film who seem to have strayed into the picture-postcard idyll of the Alps.

After the test run in her spacesuit, she returns to the interior of the fortress. It serves as a simulation of the lava tubes on the moon, where astronauts are expected to find shelter from cosmic radiation in the future. In the damp tunnels leading deep into the mountain, one really does feel as though one is entering another world.

The facilities in the section of the fortress where the lunar base is being set up are spartan. It spans two floors, covering a total of 210 sq m. Upstairs: a small sleeping area with mats and a beige radiator; an infirmary with medical equipment; a gym with pink walls, containing an exercise bike and a weight bench. During the mission, the students must train for two hours a day, just like the astronauts on the International Space Station.

In the common room there is a large table with laptops, whilst food supplies are stored in crates. During the mission, the students eat freeze-dried meals, such as those used during space travel, supplemented by snacks such as nuts and dried fruit. On the lower floor, there is a bathroom with a toilet and shower.

The astronauts are currently being instructed to operate the rover, which is set to navigate autonomously and map the terrain. In total, the mission is carrying out fifteen experiments, developed by researchers from all over the world, including on the effects of isolation on astronauts’ metabolism, growing plants in lunar soil, and the development of a menstrual cup for use in zero gravity.

At MCC, final preparations are underway. Students are moving furniture and putting up posters. The centre is being staffed round the clock until the end of the mission. Each day is divided into three eight-hour shifts, starting at 4 am, 12 pm, and 8 pm, respectively.

The atmosphere is a bit hectic. Matthew, part of the mission’s executive team, receives a radio message and speaks excitedly into the walkie-talkie: “Cows have made themselves comfortable right outside the door to the space capsule,” he explains. “It would be rather disruptive for the astronauts’ immersion if they were woken up by cowbells on their way to the moon.”

Cows at a space simulation. That is something you will probably only find in Switzerland.

The working language of the project is English, but at MCC a jumble of languages are spoken: French and Spanish, Swiss German and Portuguese.

The project is run entirely by students, with a total of around 120 members from all over the world.
| Photo Credit:
Jessica Dreier

While the real moon is becoming an object of geopolitical rivalries, as the US and China engage in a race to build the first lunar base, in this very moment, the student project demonstrates an alternative: cooperation across borders, driven by shared passion and curiosity.

The public is invited to the mission launch; after all, around half of the mission is crowdfunded. Curious visitors tour the MCC. A stall sells T-shirts bearing the Asclepios logo, and freeze-dried meals.

The astronauts are seen off in a festive ceremony, with the student organisers of the mission delivering emotional speeches. Then the countdown begins. 10, 9, 8…. A video on the screen shows an animated rocket bearing the Asclepios logo lifting off, en route to the moon.

The astronauts spend twelve hours in the space capsule, a small barracks room in a nearby fort. From there, they will set off for the Gotthard Fortress, their lunar base. From now, they will live for two weeks without daylight, completely isolated.

The crew is split into two expeditions, with schedules staggered by eight hours. Whilst one part of the crew is asleep, the other works. This means the lunar base is active round the clock, 24/7. Pritha is part of the first expedition.

Pritha’s logs

How is this mission affecting the astronauts? Pritha kept a log.

Day 4:

“My favourite dish is the lentil dal. It reminds me of a breakfast from South India: uppittu. The taste makes me feel at home…. The French bean stew, on the other hand, isn’t very popular with the crew: we’re constantly negotiating with the MCC to change the menu.”

Day 7:

“I woke up feeling homesick today, but my crew soon cheered me up. Later, I had an extra-vehicular activity to test the rover. I put on my spacesuit and set off. When I stepped outside, it was completely dark. The night was clear, and the stars were shining brightly. For the first time in my life, I could see the Milky Way with the naked eye—back in Bengaluru, that’s impossible because of light pollution. The sight overwhelmed me, giving me goosebumps.”

Day 8:

“In an experiment, we’re investigating how spending time in a VR simulation of nature affects astronauts’ mental well-being. The experience was truly immersive. In the end, I spent all my free time that day sitting by a little stream in the simulation, whilst the trees swayed in the wind.”

Day 9:

“Yesterday, our toilet had a water leak and the floor was flooded. So it fell to Pablo, Andrew, and me to mop up the stinking wastewater. As an astronaut, you face challenges you don’t expect…. At least we were allowed an extra shower afterwards.”

Day 13:

“The two expedition teams operate on different schedules, so a tradition has developed: when it’s time for the handover, one crew wakes the other with a song, accompanied by the ukulele. Today, the rest of my crew was on an external mission, while I took charge of communications with the MCC. I took the radio into the sleeping quarters so we could sing ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ together for the other crew—me live on site, the rest of my crew joining in via radio.”

Day 14. The mission is coming to an end; both expeditions are returning to Earth. When Pritha steps out of the mountain fortress and sees daylight for the first time in two weeks, she can barely keep her eyes open. The world seems incredibly bright to her, the colours overwhelming. Then she starts running and stretches out her arms to touch the green of the meadow.

“It’s a liberating feeling,” she says later. “After an experience like that, you appreciate the beauty of our home planet all the more.”

The mission has reinforced her dream of becoming an astronaut. The timing is perfect: ISRO is currently planning its first manned missions. The programme, which until recently only accepted fighter pilots, has now opened up to civilians as well. “That would be a fantastic opportunity in the future,” says Pritha.

From now on, she will also see the moon in a different light. “When I saw the moon on the first night after the mission, I felt a tangible connection,” she says. “As if I had already been there.”

Perhaps one day Pritha or one of the others will set off for the real moon, and remember those two weeks spent in the Swiss Alps. And perhaps it will feel like homecoming.

Florian Kappelsberger works as an editor for National Geographic in Germany. He also freelances as a journalist.

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