Musilova to Head Next Simulated Missions to the Moon and Mars

Bratislava, November 12 (TASR) - Slovak scientist and president of the Slovak Organisation for Space Activities (SOSA) Michaela Musilova will be the director of the planned simulated missions to the Moon and Mars in Hawaii, TASR learnt on Monday. The owner of the simulated space station at Mauna Loa in Hawaii offered to make the Slovak scientist the director of all future missions. Simulated missions on the Moon are set to begin at the end of November. Next year Musilova is slated to head the European Space Agency (ESA) mission. The Slovak scientist wants to continue to link her research with Slovakia. "A Slovak rover [space exploration vehicle] completely manufactured in Slovakia by RoboTech Vision and SOSA was supposed to be used in the sixth NASA mission. Instead, the rover will form part of the ESA mission next year... The rover is supposed to help my crew with some scientific and technical work, including field research for scientific purposes and collecting samples," said Musilova, adding that the data obtained from the rover will be provided to Slovak university students. This year's sixth simulated mission to Mars was first prematurely interrupted and later cancelled completely due to a team member having an accident. tz/mcs