Alum Launches into Astronaut Training in Switzerland

When she began studying as an undergraduate at The University of Texas at Austin, now-alum Katie Mulry (B.S. ’23) never expected to find herself simulating a mission to space from underneath a fortress in Switzerland.   

These days, Mulry leads international teams of students who strive to learn more about conditions in outer space through Asclepios, the same program she attended in 2022 during an exchange semester.  

Launching from the Forty Acres 

Mulry credits UT Austin as the launch point for her blooming career in aerospace engineering, which already has spanned the United States and Europe.  

In high school, she took part in a NASA project that was hosted at UT Austin. It was during that project that Mulry became interested in space expeditions.   

Later, after her first year as an undergraduate at UT Austin, she discovered Asclepios and applied, making it through four intense rounds of a selection process that mimics NASA’s astronaut selection program.  

After the initial joy of learning she had been admitted to the program, Mulry realized that she would need to find a study abroad program that would allow her to travel frequently to Switzerland during her junior year.  

Texas Global helped Mulry arrange an exchange semester at TU Delft, a prestigious university in the Netherlands. Her time at TU Delft inspired her to live abroad after graduating from UT Austin.  

After participating in Asclepios missions, Mulry began working for a startup based in France. Almost immediately, she was able to begin working in a supervising role in mission control due to her experience in managing analog missions. 

Research by Students, for Students 

A nonprofit organization founded in 2019, Asclepios offers “an analog mission that’s by students, for students,” according to Mulry.  

During the program, crews of students spend a year training together like astronauts before two weeks of living in isolation, housed in an underground bunker that simulates the extraterrestrial conditions of a mission to the moon. 

“As a student in a project where you get to be in a simulated mission control, you design what a crew of six to nine astronauts needs to survive for two weeks in a space habitat,” Mulry said.  

To better understand conditions in space, participating student researchers perform a variety of experiments, which are requested by companies and space agencies alike. Experiments range from testing the way conditions in space might expand the medical field to determining whether plants can grow in environments beyond Earth’s atmosphere.  

Some experiments are designed to explore the human aspects of space exploration. One study from the University of Oxford considers the changes in identity that people could experience when they are no longer on Earth (or no longer feel like they are on Earth).  

Given a disposable camera to take pictures inside the lunar base, the astronauts also journal daily during trainings and the mission. The researchers are curious to know what shifts in identity happen when people begin to consider themselves “no longer earthlings.” 

Specialized Skills to Excel 

Asclepios serves not only as a “scientific testbed for research projects from around the world,” as Mulry described it. Also, the program offers a crucial source of practical experience for global university students pursuing a career in a competitive industry.  

“The human spaceflight industry is a bit hard to get into, especially as a student,” Mulry acknowledged. Programs like Asclepios offer opportunities for students to build invaluable skills that place them ahead of the curve.  

“I have friends from Asclepios who are operating satellites,” Mulry said. “I have friends who are working at NASA. It’s not often that you get the chance to … work in such a unique project with so many people from all over the world.”  

Mulry hopes that students currently enrolled at UT Austin will consider applying for Asclepios or a similar program.  

“Engaging in projects like this — where you get to meet people from very different backgrounds, work together and understand different ways of doing things — is valuable on a professional level, but especially on a personal level,” she said. “You really do get to understand the world and the people around you better.”