Rannersmann represents Namibia at international space programme
Reaching for the stars
Rannersmann earlier this year became one of only five Namibian learners to have participated in the United Space School (USS) since 2004.
Tobias Rannersmann (17), a learner from the Deutsche Höhere Privatschule (DHPS), participated in the United Space School (USS) in Houston, Texas, from 14 to 29 July - one of only five Namibian learners since 2004.
He was the only Namibian chosen to participate at this National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) funded school. He explained that he received an application form from his school and after filling it in, he was subsequently chosen by the USS.
Other, larger countries have more than one space in this programme - South Africa, for example, is allowed to send two participants.
“I have always had a fascination for space and it has been my plan for the last couple of years to study astrophysics. USS has only furthered these ambitions and has proved to me that this is what I want to do later on,” Rannersmann said.
The space mission
The programme divided the participants into five groups - yellow, green, blue, maroon and red - that each had to work on a part of a bigger project. The project was to plan a hypothetical manned mission to Mars.
The yellow team was responsible for mission control. This also included a budget plan and working out the legal aspects of the mission.
Creating a livable habitat so that the astronauts could survive the harsh environment was under the purview of the green team. Their job required close cooperation with the blue team, who was in charge of deciding what types of experiments to run on Mars and how to do it. The habitat had to be adjusted for the needs of the experiments as well. The blue team was additionally tasked with designing a rover so that the crew can traverse the surface of Mars efficiently.
Lastly, the maroon and red teams worked closely together on the logistics of getting the crew to and from Mars. Designing a lander so the astronauts would be able to get safely onto Mars and back into orbit again was the job of the maroon team. The red team, which Rannersmann was part of, got to work in planning the transit to get everyone to where they need to be.
On the space mission, he said: “I got to meet a lot of highly intelligent people from all over the world who were all as space obsessed as I am. This made it especially easy for us all to get along well and further learn from each other as well.”
Looking back
“By far one of our biggest challenges was that we didn't get any information from the USS directly except for a few speakers who taught us about their specific field. Sadly for my team, none of their presentations was very relevant for our task,” Rannersmann explained. Consequently, a lot of time was spent researching on their own. “It taught us to be self reliant, but to work closely with the other people around us," he said.
"A moment that had a significant impact on me both personally and academically was during one of our work sessions and noticing that we had completely covered a big white board with calculations within a couple of hours without noticing how fast the time had gone by and how much fun it was to do calculations if it's a topic that interests me,” he said as he looked back on the experience.
He was the only Namibian chosen to participate at this National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) funded school. He explained that he received an application form from his school and after filling it in, he was subsequently chosen by the USS.
Other, larger countries have more than one space in this programme - South Africa, for example, is allowed to send two participants.
“I have always had a fascination for space and it has been my plan for the last couple of years to study astrophysics. USS has only furthered these ambitions and has proved to me that this is what I want to do later on,” Rannersmann said.
The space mission
The programme divided the participants into five groups - yellow, green, blue, maroon and red - that each had to work on a part of a bigger project. The project was to plan a hypothetical manned mission to Mars.
The yellow team was responsible for mission control. This also included a budget plan and working out the legal aspects of the mission.
Creating a livable habitat so that the astronauts could survive the harsh environment was under the purview of the green team. Their job required close cooperation with the blue team, who was in charge of deciding what types of experiments to run on Mars and how to do it. The habitat had to be adjusted for the needs of the experiments as well. The blue team was additionally tasked with designing a rover so that the crew can traverse the surface of Mars efficiently.
Lastly, the maroon and red teams worked closely together on the logistics of getting the crew to and from Mars. Designing a lander so the astronauts would be able to get safely onto Mars and back into orbit again was the job of the maroon team. The red team, which Rannersmann was part of, got to work in planning the transit to get everyone to where they need to be.
On the space mission, he said: “I got to meet a lot of highly intelligent people from all over the world who were all as space obsessed as I am. This made it especially easy for us all to get along well and further learn from each other as well.”
Looking back
“By far one of our biggest challenges was that we didn't get any information from the USS directly except for a few speakers who taught us about their specific field. Sadly for my team, none of their presentations was very relevant for our task,” Rannersmann explained. Consequently, a lot of time was spent researching on their own. “It taught us to be self reliant, but to work closely with the other people around us," he said.
"A moment that had a significant impact on me both personally and academically was during one of our work sessions and noticing that we had completely covered a big white board with calculations within a couple of hours without noticing how fast the time had gone by and how much fun it was to do calculations if it's a topic that interests me,” he said as he looked back on the experience.
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