Between the 27th of April and the 1st of May a Mars analog field test was organized and coordinated by the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) at the Giant Ice cave at the Dachstein Mountains, Upper Austria, Austria. During this test, the Aouda.X spacesuit simulator and selected geophysical and life-science related experiments were conducted.
The Antipodes experiment was a joint operations simulation between the OeWF (Austria), KiwiSpace (New Zealand) and the Mars Society (USA).
Antipodes is an operations experiment where a loss of communication (e.g. satellite is out-of-range) to Earth is simulated. A parallel landing party on the other side of Mars is requested to take over the coordination of an ongoing Extra-Vehicular Activity via their habitat, relayed via a satellite in Martian orbit until Earth is able to reestablish contact again.
Four distinct experiments were attempted to establish comms links using the relevant software, simulated rover control from Wellington, OeWF control of an MDRS experiment and MDRS control of an OeWF experiment