Volker Gass | EPFL Graph Search

After completing his master’s degree in Microtechnology at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne in 1989 he worked as a Project Manager at Mecanex SA, a Swiss High-Tech company active in the field of Aerospace Mechanisms. While working at Mecanex he completed a PhD in Science in the field of applied Micro-Systems Technologies at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1994. In 1995, Volker Gass participated in the Management Buy Out of Mecanex SA. In 2000, Mecanex was acquired by the Swiss Defence and Technology group RUAG . He was appointed to lead Customer Relations and Business Development of the newly formed Systems & Space Division at RUAG Aerospace in 2004. In the same year he was appointed member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences for his contribution in the field of High-Technology Space applications. From November 2006 to June 2007, Volker Gass successfully graduated RUAG’s Top Leadership Course, and held the position of General Manager, Sales & Marketing in the Space Division of RUAG in Switzerland as well as Member of the Board of Directors (President) of Mecanex USA Inc., Berlin, CT, until December 2009.In 2008 he successfully led the acquisition of SAAB Space and its subsidiary Austrian Aerospace. From January to June 2009 Volker Gass led the business team in the successful acquisition of Oerlikon Space. From mid-2009 to September 2011 he was responsible for Special Projects in the Marketing & Sales Organization of RUAG Space Switzerland. Since October 2011, Dr. Volker Gass is nominated Director of the Swiss Space Center at the Ecole Politechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. In March 2012, he is awarded the title of Adjunct Professor at the School of Engineering (STI) of the EPFL. From January 2014 to December 2017, he was nominated member of ESA’s Human Spaceflight and Exploration Science Advisory Committee (HESAC) and from spring 2015 to December 2018, observer at ESA’s Earth Science Advisory Committee (ESAC).As of January 1, 2021, The Swiss Space Center is renamed "Space Innovation"

An Empirical and Subjective Model of Upper Extremity Fatigue Under Hypogravity

Volker Gass, Claude Nicollier, Tatiana Volkova

In the context of extra-terrestrial missions, the effects of hypogravity (0 < G < 1) on the human body can reduce the well-being of the crew, cause musculoskeletal problems and affect their ability to perform tasks, especially during long-term missions. To date, studies of the effects of hypogravity on human movement are limited to experiments on the lower limbs. Here, we extend the knowledge base to the upper limbs, by conducting experiments to evaluate the effect of hypogravity on upper limb physical fatigue and mental workload in participants. Our hypothesis was that hypogravity would both increase participant productivity, by reducing overall physical fatigue expressed in Endurance Time, and reduce mental workload. Task Intensity-Endurance time curves are developed especially in seated positions, while performing static, dynamic, repetitive tasks. This experiment involved 32 healthy participants without chronic problems of the musculoskeletal system aged 33.59 +/- 8.16 years. Using the collected data, fatigue models were constructed for tasks of varying Intensity. In addition, all participants completed the NASA - Task Load Index subjective mental workload assessment, which revealed the level of subjective workload when executing different tasks. We found two trends in the empirical fatigue models associated with the difference between the strength capabilities of males and females. The first is a significant positive (p = 0.002) relation between Endurance time and gravity level (1/6 G Moon, 1/3 G Mars, 1G) with negative coefficient for males and females for a static task. And there is marginal relation (p < 0.1) between overall mental workload and gravity level with a positive coefficient for males and females for the same task. The same trend was observed for dynamic and repetitive tasks. We concluded that the Task Intensity-Endurance Time model, adapted to hypogravity in combination with subjective mental assessment, is useful to human fatigue investigation. The combination of these methods used for ergonomic analysis and digital human modeling, could improve worker productivity. Finally, this study may help prepare astronauts for long-term missions on the Moon and Mars and improve our understanding of how we can prevent musculoskeletal disorders caused by hazardous manual handling under such extreme environments.

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA2022

Use of space analog missions as an educational tool in primary schools

Volker Gass

Space exploration is a field that inspires a wide range of people, from children to university students, including the general public. With a return to the Moon planned for 2024 and the rapid expansion of the private industry, educating the next generation for this challenge becomes a priority. As many interdisciplinary programmes in universities are developed, the increasing interest in do-it-yourself projects can be observed. In addition, nothing inspires children more than the wish of becoming astronauts. By combining these two previously stated themes, space analog missions, simulations of life on another celestial body, were used as an educational tool for children, in our case in a primary school.In the frame of an EPFL semester project, such a program was run at the Vivalys primary school in Switzerland. A class of 16 children between the age of 6 and 9 successfully designed and conducted a simulated Mars-based mission from September 2020 to March 2021, in spite of the difficult COVID situation. The Vivalys Mission has been entirely integrated to the school year's program by adapting the educational subjects (mathematics, sci-ences, geography, French, sports, history, and arts), attending workshops, and performing hands-on experiments. Systems engineering approaches were adopted allowing the class to acquire knowledge regarding stakeholder analysis, risk management and decision tools. The young team made mission design choices and presented them to experts during reviews. Leadership, teamwork and autonomy were demonstrated and practiced. This tool is innovative: a do-it-yourself approach combined with education and practical work.The educational impact was studied using assessment strategies such as evaluations, rubrics and personal interviews. The progress and skills acquired, as well as their increasing will to work in the space field, were highlighted in the results. Following the success of this program, the local primary schools showed interest in running a similar project. Thanks to this first case study, lessons learned such as adapting the curriculum, organizing exterior activities, and enhancing the participation of adults, were collected.This is the first step towards impacting different age groups, starting in pre-school right up to secondary education. The success of our study underlines the current need and enthusiasm for such projects and will be further developed in the upcoming years becoming easily accessible to schools across Switzerland and the world, also through the promotion at IAC.

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

Can automotive MEMS be reliably used in space applications? An assessment method under sequential bi-parameter testing

Maxime Auchlin, Volker Gass, Olha Sereda

Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) automotive inertial measurement units were subjected to severe accumulative stress conditions: thermal shocks (high temperature gradients), temperature cycling (low gradients) and mechanical vibration are combined in an A-then-B sequential testing procedure, with the aim to promote failure acceleration and improve lifetime prediction. The maximum stresses, applied individually, did not cause failure on the selected components. On the other hand, accumulative bi-parameter testing conditions resulted in die attach delamination. Three batches of devices tested with different preconditioning (A-then-B or B-then-A) display different reliability figures. Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is established. A Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is done based on a destructive physical analysis of the devices to confirm the correlation between the stresses applied and the physics of the failure in order to understand the thermomechanical behavior of the devices, linking it to observed failures.

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2020