Ernst Messerschmid

  • STS -61- A ( 1985)

Ernst Willi knife Schmid ( born May 21, 1945 in Reutlingen, Baden- Württemberg ) is a German physicist and astronaut.

Biography

Knife Schmid grew up near Stuttgart and started after school a plumber apprenticeship in his parents'. As a journeyman plumber, he took on the second-chance education after high school and be placed on the specialized technical high school in Stuttgart at the age of 20 years as the best in class university entrance from.

After he had completed his military service, knives Schmid in 1967, took on his physics studies. He first visited the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen in 1970 and went for a year as a visiting scholar at the European nuclear research center CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Then he continued his studies at the Rheinische Friedrich- Wilhelms University in Bonn (North Rhine -Westphalia) and earned his diploma in 1972.

Then knife Schmid returned to CERN and conducted research for three years in Geneva. In 1975 he went as a research assistant in the United States at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Iceland (New York), where he was involved in the development of particle accelerators.

The following year he accepted a position in his Baden-Württemberg home: He worked as a research assistant at the Albert -Ludwigs- University in Freiburg im Breisgau and wrote his doctoral thesis ( studies of the longitudinal instability of relativistic proton beams in circular accelerators ). In 1976 he received his Dr. rer. nat. and went for a year to Hamburg. At the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), he worked on the beam optics of the storage ring PETRA.

Astronauts activity

In 1977, the then- DFVLR had sought ( German Research and Testing Institute for Aerospace ) in all larger German newspapers by experimenters for the European Spacelab. Similar ads have been posted by other national organizations by ESA Member States. The European Space Agency (ESA) sought candidates to build their first astronaut group. The aspirant was promised to be able to conduct research in the built of the ESA space lab aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle. A total of around 2,000 scientists submitted their documents one - of which only 700 from the Federal Republic.

Knife Schmid, who worked at that time at DESY, found the prospect of being able to work in space, interesting. He submitted his documents obtained by running the selection process and finally one of the five national finalists. However, it was Ulf Merbold who made the race for the Federal Republic and was reported to the ESA headquarters.

In 1978, Schmid knife to DFVLR, the predecessor of today's DLR, and came to the Department of Telecommunications in Oberpfaffenhofen ( Bavaria). He worked on satellite-based emergency services and future navigation systems. Five years later the DFVLR asked the finalists who had failed in 1977, if they had still interested to participate in a space flight.

The Federal Republic had agreed with the United States to conduct its own Spacelab mission mid-1980s aboard the Space Shuttle. The mainly coming from Germany experiments should be supervised by West German astronauts. It was necessary to select another candidate. In December 1982 knife Schmid and his Berlin colleague Reinhard Furrer were presented as science astronauts to the public.

After several years of intensive preparation knife Schmid Furrer and flew aboard the U.S. space shuttle Challenger in the near-Earth space. They cared for the 75 experimental arrangements during the mission D1 in the fall of 1985. It was the first funded by Germany Spacelab flight ( hence the designation D1). After seven days the science companies came to a successful end.

Teaching

Since then knife Schmid in 1986 gave up his service in the German astronaut cadre, he had - in different positions - a solid teaching at the University of Stuttgart held. In November of that year he accepted an appointment as Associate Professor and was Director of the Institute of Space Systems (IRS). He was also from 1989 for ten years Speaker of the Collaborative Research Center "High temperature problems returning viable space transportation systems " (SFB 259).

1990 knife Schmid was elected for two years as Dean of the Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, then was deputy head of the faculty before he worked as Vice President for Research and Technology of the University for two years from October 1996. Since 1998 until his retirement in 2013 he went back to his teaching position at the IRS by - with the exception of four years, he took leave from his professorship: 2000 to 2004 he was Head of the European Astronaut Centre (EAC ) in Cologne. There he was responsible for the training of astronauts.

In addition to his academic research diameter Schmid is involved in many ways: from 1987 to 1992 he served on the advisory committee for Hermes and advised the European Space Agency on security issues of the Space Shuttle. For four months he was from October 1991 for ESA chairman of the selection committee for the European astronauts on the EAC and between October 1992 to June 1993 he held the chair of the selection committee for space programs of DLR. He also formed the German astronaut from D- 2 ( Schlegel / Walter / Brümmer / Thiele ) and MIR '92 (flat / Ewald ).

Since 1990, knives Schmid lectures at the National University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the SUPAERO, in Toulouse, France, and teaches at the International Space University in Strasbourg. For ESA, he headed from 1994 for two years, the Space Advisory Group segment of the telecommunications department and was in use until 2000 Committee for the International Space Station (ISS). Between 1995 and 1997 he directed the German Agency for Space Affairs, the Advisory Group for the use of the ISS. In addition, he was 1996-2004 Reviewer for air and space technology at the German Research Foundation.

Others

Knife Schmid published around 150 scientific papers, is co-author of ten books and holds ten German and European patents. He is first among other agencies of the Federal Cross of Merit class, the Medal of Merit of the State of Baden -Wuerttemberg and the Golden Hermann Oberth Medal. In 2010 he was awarded the Hans -Peter Stihl price. Since 2004 is a member of the Scholars Academy Leopoldina.

Since 1977, knives Schmid is married.

Writings (selection )

  • Ernst Schmid knife, Stefanos Fasoulas: space systems. An introduction with exercises and solutions. Springer, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-540-21037-7.
  • Ernst Schmid knife, Kian Yazdi, John Uhl. Space Station Design Workshop 2002 Interdisciplinary Student Education. ESA Publication SP- 1267, European Space Agency, Paris, February 2003.
  • Ernst knife Schmid, Reinhold Bertrand: Space Stations. Systems and Utilization. Springer, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-540-65464- X.
  • Ernst knife Schmid, Reinhold Bertrand, Frank Pohlemann: space stations. Systems and use. Springer, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-540-60992- X.
  • Ernst knife Schmid, Reinhold Bertrand: MELISSA. A LabVIEW -based environment for the simulation of life support systems. In: Jamal Rahman, Hans Jaschinski (Ed.): Virtual Instruments in practice. Band at the 97th Congress VIP Hüthig, Heidelberg 1997, ISBN 3-7785-2667-7.
  • Ernst Schmid knife, Berndt Feuerbacher: From All in everyday life. Space - the laboratory and marketplace. Motor book, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-02785-5.
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