Timo Bernhard, from Le Mans to outer space
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Timo Bernhard, from Le Mans to outer space

Early this week, official Porsche driver and and two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard (2010 and 2017) spent time in the simulator at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne where Dr. Mathias Maurer is in training to become an astronaut representing Germany.

One year after a chance meeting at the Nürburgring during a round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), engineer Dr. Mathias Maurer - chosen in 2015 by the European Astronaut Centre - and Timo Bernhard reunited to take on the simulator intended to provide training for stays in the International Space Station.

Last year, the defending world endurance champion presented his fellow countryman the Porsche 919 Hybrid with which he had claimed the top step on the overall podium a few weeks earlier at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after a historic return from behind.

At the time, Dr. Mathias Maurer took a seat in the cockpit of the Porsche that had established a new win record (19) at the legendary endurance race. Last Monday, it was Timo Bernhard's turn to test out the space station berth where astronauts sleep in an upright position.

The two men noticed several similiarities between the skills needed to work as an endurance driver and an astronaut: namely technological savvy, team work, radio communication, pressure management, physical fitness, nutrition, concentration and simulation.

At the 2017 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, back from a stay in space during which he took quite a few photos, including a snapshot of the Le Mans circuit, underscored these similarities un a message broadcast during the starting procedures of the race: "Much like the space station, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a sort of experimental laboratory for the everyday person. In space, we also test plenty of things to find solutions to problems on Earth and improve the lives of its citizens."

Before heading into space, one must successfully dock the Soyuz spacecraft at the space station, a dangerous and extremely precise undertaking Timo Bernhard tried in the simulator during his visit.

 

PHOTO (Copyright - Porsche): Dr. Mathias Maurer and Timo Bernhard in the simulator at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

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