From February 1 to 28, 2018, the Austrian Space Forum, in cooperation with the Oman Astronomical Society and research teams from 25 nations, conducted the AMADEE-18 mission, a human-robotic Mars expedition simulation in the Dhofar region in the Sultanate of Oman. A carefully selected field crew, supported by a Mission Support Center in Innsbruck, Austria, conducted 19 experiments relevant to astrobiology, engineering disciplines, geoscience, operations research, and human factors. This expedition was the 12th in a series of analog missions that emulate selected aspects of the science expected for a human Mars mission, including the characterization of the (paleo)geological environment, human factors studies, and the search for biomarkers. In particular, an Exploration Cascade was deployed as a suggested workflow for coordinating the timing and location of the respective instruments and experiments. In validation of this workflow, the decision-making interaction between the field and the Mission Support Center was studied. This article introduces the AMADEE-18 mission and provides the mission-specific context for the other contributions of this special issue.

中文翻译：

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阿曼佐法尔地区的 AMADEE-18 火星模拟探险队

2018年2月1日至28日，奥地利空间论坛与阿曼天文学会和来自25个国家的研究团队合作，在阿曼苏丹国佐法尔地区进行了AMADEE-18任务，这是一次人机火星探险模拟. 在奥地利因斯布鲁克的任务支持中心的支持下，精心挑选的外勤人员进行了 19 项与天体生物学、工程学科、地球科学、运筹学和人为因素相关的实验。这次探险是一系列模拟任务中的第 12 次，这些任务模拟了人类火星任务所期望的科学的选定方面，包括（古）地质环境的表征、人为因素研究和生物标志物的搜索。特别是，探索级联被部署为建议的工作流程，用于协调各个仪器和实验的时间和位置。在验证此工作流程时，研究了外地和任务支持中心之间的决策互动。本文介绍了 AMADEE-18 任务，并为本特刊的其他贡献提供了特定于任务的背景。