DLR Portal - Features

Tracking aircraft from space

Fri, 03 May 2013 11:37:03 +0200

On 4 May 2013 at 04:06 (CEST), when the European Proba-V satellite lifts off on a Vega launcher with the primary mission of observing vegetation from space, it will be carrying another instrument on board – one that will be keeping an 'eye' on aircraft.

Reducing turbulence near airports - DLR tests new procedures to mitigate wake vortices

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:46:49 +0200

Currently, safety considerations related to wake vortices force pilots of small and medium-sized aircraft to maintain a separation of about 10 kilometres from heavier planes flying ahead of them.

Lift-off – mini-ecosystem and mini-satellites en route to space

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:02:59 +0200

It is a premiere eagerly awaited by scientists and technicians; on 19 April 2013, a Soyuz launcher successfully carried the successor to the long-standing BION series of Russian research satellites into space.

In search of antimatter

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:50:10 +0200

The first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) have been released. This space 'camera' has recorded 20 billion cosmic particles in the first 18 months of operation – yet that is just a small step.

Disaster relief – DLR to chair the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters'

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:33:57 +0200

Bureaucracy-free assistance in the event of an emergency – this is the aim of the 15 space agencies united within the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters'.

TEXUS 50 – Anniversary for Germany's sounding rocket programme

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:00:29 +0200

It is the world's longest running rocket programme for conducting research in microgravity, and today it is celebrating an anniversary. Around 35 years after the launch of the first TEXUS mission in December 1977, the 50th TEXUS rocket was successfully launched into space from the Esrange Space Center near Kiruna in northern Sweden on 12 April 2013 at 06:25 CEST.

DLR Magazine 136/137 - Making science fun

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:15:05 +0200

The Mars rover makes its way across rough terrain - but not on its own. A school pupil controls it. Although it is not a real rover conducting scientific experiments, the child is clearly thrilled by this game. Dirk Stiefs' objective is to spark an interest in science. The latest issue of the DLR Magazine features the creative head of the DLR_School_Lab in Bremen.

Cryptography of the future – DLR technology enables quantum key transmission from the air to the ground

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:09:19 +0200

A successful experiment by DLR in cooperation with the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich has opened up new possibilities in cryptography. For the first time, researchers have managed to transmit a quantum key from a fast-moving object.

Studying human skin in space – Soyuz mission takes SKIN B to the ISS

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:46:16 +0100

Human skin is an organ with many functions; it regulates, among other things, the water balance and temperature of the body, it prevents the entry of pathogens, protects the body from ultraviolet radiation and serves as a sensory organ. But how does it react to the harsh conditions of space? Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) are seeking answers to these questions with the SKIN B experiment, funded by DLR Space Administration. The experiment started its journey to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 21:43 CET on 28 March 2013, carried by the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft with the crew of ISS Expedition 35.

Pilot training on a robotic arm

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:15:00 +0100

From the outside it looks like just a large industrial robotic arm with a cockpit, but to the pilot inside the simulator, it feels like a real aircraft. The pilot sits at the controls, and the flight commands are converted into corresponding movements of the robotic arm in real time.

The robot is complete – arms and hands for TORO, the walking machine

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:25:30 +0100

It began in the summer of 2009, with two legs and a camera mounted on top – but it was still far from being a robot of humanoid appearance. Gradually, the TOrque controlled humanoid RObot (TORO), the German Aerospace Center's (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) walking machine, has become more human-like – an upper body, a head with camera eyes and arms have been added.