Österreichisches Weltraum Forum

Name

Österreichisches Weltraum Forum

Legal name

Österreichisches Weltraum Forum

Website

https://oewf.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Space Analog Research Services

NAICS

Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing (336414)

SIC

Guided Missiles & Space Vehicles & Parts (3760), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Spacecraft & Satellites (Civil/Commercial) (IMABACAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Space & Astronomy Programs (EDAMABAE)

Keywords

• Mars analog research
• Spacesuit simulator
• Hypogravity research
• Citizen science
• Space education programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Innsbruck

HQ country

Austria

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Membership fees and donations: ÖWF runs as a registered Austrian association (Verein) financed by member contributions ("Mitglied werden"), public donations ("Unterstützen Sie Weltraum-Forschung aus Österreich"), and merchandise sales via the Spreadshop storefront. Funds support ongoing analog research and education programs.
2. Research grants and ESA-funded programs: Receives research funding from the European Space Agency, including under the ESA CORA program (e.g., hypogravity ventilation-threshold study with Medical Universities of Vienna and Graz) and as operator of the ESA Ground-Based Vertical Treadmill Facility. Collaborations with the Medical University of Vienna, Medical University of Graz, and University of Würzburg add co-funded research revenue.
3. Merchandise sales: Sells branded merchandise (ÖWF Merch Shop) via a Spreadshop storefront; copyright on content is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA, allowing non-commercial reuse with attribution.
4. Education services and training: Revenue from paid workshops, Vortragsservice (lecture service), Analog Mission Basic Training (AMBT) for mission-support volunteers, and sponsored school programs (JAA26, EXPLORE Mission Toolkit, STEMMOS, SPHERE summer school). Some programs are Erasmus+ funded.
5. Online shop payments (PayPal): Online shop integrates PayPal as payment processor for merchandise orders (Austria operations).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels12 records

Core offering

ÖWF conducts interdisciplinary Mars and Moon analog field research through the AMADEE mission program, develops and operates Aouda-series analog spacesuit simulators and the ESA Vertical Treadmill Facility for hypogravity physiology studies, and delivers STEAM/citizen-science education programs (JAA26, EXPLORE, STEMMOS, SPHERE) plus training for analog astronauts and mission-support staff. Its Vienna-based Mission Support Center coordinates international multi-habitat missions such as the World's Biggest Analog.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Aouda Raumanzug-Simulator: ÖWF's ~50 kg spacesuit simulator that mimics the constraints of a real spacesuit (restricted field of view, arm/leg movement limits, radio-only communication, thick gloves impairing fine motor skills); worn during EVAs in Mars analog missions.
• Polarsternpreis

Products and services

• AMADEE Mars Analog Mission Program Interdisciplinary Mars analog field-mission program developed jointly with international partners to de-risk exploration strategies for future crewed Mars expeditions; each mission runs a multi-week field simulation with full analog-astronaut EVAs using the Aouda spacesuit simulator and a Mission Support Center in Vienna.
• Aouda Spacesuit Simulator ~50 kg analog spacesuit simulator that mimics a real spacesuit's restrictions (limited field of view, restricted arm/leg movement, radio-only communication, thick gloves impairing fine motor skills). Worn by analog astronauts during all EVAs in AMADEE Mars analog missions.
• Mission Support Center / MICO-VIE Flight-control / mission-support facility for AMADEE missions; houses a Flight Control Room where only AMBT-certified staff support the field crew. Also serves as MICO-VIE, the coordination hub for the World's Biggest Analog.
• ESA Vertical Treadmill Facility Vertical treadmill operated at ÖWF's Innsbruck SuitLab as Austria's official ESA Ground-Based Facility; simulates Moon and Mars gravity for human-physiology and biomechanics research with and without a spacesuit exoskeleton.
• World's Biggest Analog (WBA) Program International coordination program linking multiple Moon/Mars analog habitats worldwide for synchronized research through the ÖWF-operated MICO-VIE Mission Coordination Center in Vienna.
• Analog-Astronaut Training Program Europe's only permanent team of volunteer analog astronauts for Mars analog missions; training covers fitness, media training, geology, spacesuit-simulator operations, emergency care, astrobiology, and physical/nutritional programs. Selection involves up to 637 measured parameters over three rounds.
• STEAM Education Programs (JAA26, EXPLORE, STEMMOS, SPHERE) Citizen-science and MINT/STEAM education offerings for schools and educators, including the Junior Analog Astronauts 2026 (JAA26) program in Tirol pilot schools, EXPLORE Mission Toolkit, STEMMOS international STEM education project, and the Erasmus+ SPHERE Summer School.
• ÖWF Merch Shop (Spreadshop storefront) Direct-to-consumer branded merchandise storefront operated through Spreadshop, with PayPal payment processing; supports ÖWF's outreach and fundraising.

Quantifiable outcome

• 200 researchers from 25 countries coordinated across 16 habitats on 5 continents in the 2025 World's Biggest Analog
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• European Space Agency (ESA)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2024ESA has recognized ÖWF as the operator of Austria's first ESA Ground-Based Facility (the Vertical Treadmill in Innsbruck) since August 2024. ESA also funds ÖWF research via the ESA CORA program, including the 2025 hypogravity ventilation-threshold study conducted jointly with Medical University of Vienna and Medical University of Graz; ESA invited the team to present results in person.
• Armenian Space ForumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost partner for AMADEE-24 (April 2024 in Armenia). Joint presentation of AMADEE-24 results at the Armenian Academy of Sciences, with Hayk Aslanyan (Armenian Space Forum) joining ÖWF Director Gernot Grömer and students at a round-table discussion on Mars exploration.
• Habitat Marte (Brazil) — Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do NortecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHabitat Marte (an emerging analog research station in the southern hemisphere led by Professor Júlio Rezende) collaborated with ÖWF during the World's Biggest Analog 2025 and visited the ÖWF Suitlab on 1 December 2025 to study the spacesuit-simulator program and ESA Vertical Treadmill.
• University of Adelaide / ICEE Space — ADAMA missioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAustralia's first analog space mission, ADAMA, joined the World's Biggest Analog 2025, simulating lunar day-night conditions during 14 days of isolation; contributes to research on physical environment effects on astronaut mental and cognitive well-being.
• Medizinische Universität Wien (Leon Deutsch)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-investigator in the ESA-funded CORA hypogravity study run at the ÖWF Vertical Treadmill in summer 2025; twelve test subjects ran on the Vertical Treadmill under simulated lunar and Martian gravity with and without a spacesuit exoskeleton.
• Medizinische Universität Graz (Prof. Dr. Nandu Goswami)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-lead academic partner (with MedUni Vienna) in the ESA CORA hypogravity ventilation-threshold study; contributes space-physiology expertise to the Vertical Treadmill research program.
• Tiroler Versicherung (Tyrolean Insurance)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerHosts the Class of 2026 press conference (Innsbruck, 19 June 2026) and supports the Junior Analog Astronaut program, providing a venue and amplification for ÖWF's outreach and education activities.
• State of Tirol (Landesrätin Cornelia Hagele)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-funds and promotes the Junior Analog Astronauts 2026 (JAA26) program within five Tirol pilot schools, integrating the EXPLORE Mission Toolkit into classroom teaching and supporting satellite-data MINT projects (glacier monitoring, avalanche protection, agriculture).
• Cosmos Education CLG (STEMMOS consortium)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead partner of the STEMMOS (Satellite Observation of Earth, Moon, and Mars in Schools) international collaboration, with partners in Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria and Austria; brought space science to hundreds of students across Europe and produced the first EMMO (Earth, Moon, Mars) science training tools in 2025.
• World Space Week AssociationminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCo-initiator (with ÖWF and Swarovski) of the Tiuterra project during World Space Week 2013, sending rock samples from around the world — including Antarctica and ocean floor — to the ISS for crystallization experiments; subsequently delivered a Tiuterra crystal to UNOOSA.
• SwarovskiminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndustry partner with World Space Week Association and ÖWF on the Tiuterra project (2013–2015) producing space-flown crystals.
• Austrian Federal Chancellery (Bundeskanzleramt)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStaatssekretär Alexander Pröll visited the ÖWF Raumanzuglabor and ESA Vertical Treadmill in Innsbruck in 2025 to reinforce Austria's role in the international space sector; supports national space-policy alignment.
• Mars Society (Austria chapter = ÖWF; pan-European Mars Society chapters)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerÖWF serves as Austria's Mars Society chapter; Director Gernot Grömer is on the speaker lineup for the first pan-European Mars webinar on 16 June, uniting national Mars Society chapters across Europe (europe2mars.space).
• Asclepios student analog mission (Switzerland)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerÖWF member Marla joins the international Asclepios VI crew at Sasso San Gottardo, Switzerland (10–28 July 2026) for a student-led analog space mission; ÖWF supports with member participation.
• UNOOSA (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs) — Aarti Holla-Maini, DirectorcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini sent an inspirational video message to the World's Biggest Analog 2025 mission ("You show the world, especially young people, what humanity can truly achieve when we dream big and work together"). Earlier (2014), ÖWF delivered a Tiuterra crystal to UNOOSA Director Simonetta Di Pippo in Vienna.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• LunAres Research Station: Polish Moon-analog research station running multi-week isolation missions. Comparable to ÖWF as a European analog habitat operator that joined the WBA 2025 network and provides similar crewed-isolation research infrastructure.
• Mars Society: Largest global citizen-science network for Mars analog research and advocacy. Directly comparable to ÖWF as a volunteer-driven nonprofit running MDRS and the Mars Desert Research Station, pursuing similar mission profiles and education outreach.
• Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS): Utah-based two-week Mars analog simulation habitat operated by the Mars Society. Participated in ÖWF-coordinated World's Biggest Analog 2025 and serves the same analog-astronaut training and field-research use case as ÖWF's AMADEE missions.

Broad incumbents

• DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine (:envihab): German Aerospace Center's medical research facility for space-physiology and hypogravity studies. Comparable to ÖWF's Vertical Treadmill Facility in mission (human-physiology research for spaceflight) but operates as a much larger, nationally funded incumbent.
• SIRIUS (Scientific International Research In Unique terrestrial Station): Russia-led series of long-duration isolation analog missions managed by IBMP. Comparable to ÖWF in mission profile (multi-month isolation studies) but with very different institutional scale, sponsor (Roscosmos), and political backing.
• NASA Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA): NASA Johnson Space Center's ground-based analog for isolation and confinement studies. Comparable as a public-agency-funded analog facility but at significantly larger scale and with broader research mandate than ÖWF's Vertical Treadmill or AMADEE missions.

Emerging players

• Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM): Pressurized analog habitat in Arizona using a historic Biosphere-2 test module. Comparable to ÖWF as a crewed analog habitat operator that participated in WBA 2025 with bioregenerative life-support experiments.
• Asclepios Student Analog Mission: Swiss student-led analog mission at Sasso San Gottardo, with ÖWF member Marla joining Asclepios VI in July 2026. Comparable to ÖWF's EXPLORE student missions as an emerging European student-analog program with similar citizen-science ethos.
• Habitat Marte: Brazilian analog research station led by Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. Comparable as an emerging Southern-Hemisphere analog operator that collaborated with ÖWF during WBA 2025 and visited the ÖWF Suitlab in December 2025.

Others

• UNOOSA (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs): UN body promoting international cooperation in peaceful space use, including capacity-building and analog research. Comparable to ÖWF as an ecosystem partner rather than direct competitor; UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini addressed WBA 2025 and ÖWF previously delivered a Tiuterra crystal to UNOOSA.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/oewf
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@oewf
• Facebookfacebook.com/spaceforum
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/oewf
• Instagraminstagram.com/oewf_org

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Österreichisches Weltraum Forum