A huge heart made of flowers will delight thousands of children The Children’s Heart Foundation, Rieger-Hofmann GmbH and the German Space Agency at DLR are jointly setting an example for children suffering from heart disease with a huge heart made of wildflowers in bloom. In the ‘Space Seeds II’ hands-on activity, schoolchildren are conducting research ...

A big future for compact orbiters Small satellites are considered to be one of the main drivers of the dynamic future space market. According to studies, more than 15,000 satellites are expected to be launched between 2021 and 2030. Approximately 90 percent of these will be small satellites – that is, satellites weighing less than ...

Testing antimicrobial surfaces Microorganisms exist wherever where humans are found. And humans spread them everywhere – on the International Space Station ISS as well. Long-term stays of astronauts on a space station lead to the development of microflora from the microorganisms carried on board. This can impact the health of the astronauts – especially if ...

Technologies from spaceflight facilitate work in many situations in everyday life and also in research. Experts refer to ‘spin-offs’ when technology developments from space research are used on Earth, and that is quite often the case. The best-known invention from space research is certainly the cordless drill. However, there are countless other such technologies that ...

Return to the Moon with German expertise Under the leadership of the US space agency NASA, the Artemis programme is intended to be the next great leap forward in western spaceflight. Following the uncrewed Artemis I mission and a crewed test flight around the Moon, Artemis III is expected to land humans on the lunar ...

Modern life is no longer possible without space technologies What would happen if all the satellites orbiting Earth stopped working? In short, global chaos would ensue. Satellites have long been an integral part of our day-to-day lives. The services they provide are indispensable for mobility on land, at sea and in the air, for all ...

Investigating concrete in space, reducing emissions on Earth How does freshly poured concrete behave in microgravity? And how can this contribute towards environmental protection on Earth? In early February 2022, German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer conducted research into these issues on board the International Space Station ISS. Cement is one of humankind’s oldest building materials. ...

Technology demonstrator for the development of innovative engine concepts As part of the LUMEN (Liquid Upper Stage Demonstrator Engine) project, DLR researchers are developing a pump-fed liquid oxygen (LOX) and methane engine. The focus is on investigating the behaviour of a complete liquid-fuelled rocket cycle and its individual components in a representative test environment. The ...

Humankind’s largest ‘outpost’ in space It is the size of a football pitch, weighs approximately 480 tonnes and has an interior volume comparable to that of a 747 jumbo jet. The International Space Station ISS is humankind’s largest ‘outpost’ in space and has been orbiting Earth for almost 25 years. It was conceived on 20 ...

Pioneering work in satellite communications The Heinrich Hertz mission has several ambitious goals. One of them is to test new technologies for satellite communications, to confirm their suitability for use in space. The conditions under which these technologies must function in space are very demanding – they are exposed to extreme temperatures, vacuum and microgravity. ...

German ‘radar eye’ makes satellites safer Activity in space continues to increase. Several thousand satellites, spacecraft and other objects orbit Earth at altitudes of between 300 and 3000 kilometres. In addition to inactive satellites and the upper stages of rockets that are left behind here after missions, there are hundreds of thousands of smaller pieces ...

Europe’s satellite navigation system at the service of its citizens The Galileo system consists of two elements – a constellation of satellites in space and a network of ground stations on Earth. Both parts must work together perfectly for Galileo to function reliably and provide high-quality navigation signals. Only then can Galileo take us to ...