On 14 February 2019, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) presented some of its planned research and management activities for 2019 at its annual press conference in Berlin. Pascale Ehrenfreund, Chair of the DLR Executive Board addressed the challenges and goals for the coming year.
Humanitarian aid organisations are increasingly seeking technological support for their work in crisis and disaster situations. New technologies from fields such as satellite remote sensing, robotics and communications can assist aid workers in rescuing and caring for people as effectively as possible in emergency situations.
New 5G (fifth-generation) mobile radio systems enable reliable, secure and wireless data transmission. In rail transport, this makes virtual coupling possible – in other words the independent, contactless coupling of trains during journeys to form longer virtual units.
Representatives from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (UBC) came together in Augsburg to sign a cooperation agreement for the DLR@UBC research initiative.
The aircraft manufacturer Embraer, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) and German–Dutch Wind Tunnels (DNW) have succeeded in testing an innovative method for examining the safety of future aircraft. In another first, they have been able to analyse the flutter behaviour of a wing in real time.
A buzzing noise fills the summer air above the Heilbronn Weingenossenschaft vineyards. The source – a small remote-controlled hexacopter hovering a few metres above the vines. Hanging below it is a black box – slightly larger than a shoebox – that contains a laser-based detection system.
Alternative propulsion and low energy consumption, framed in revolutionary forms. German students are displaying immense creativity and technical skill to design the quiet and eco-friendly aircraft of the future. In Braunschweig, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) recently announced the national winners of a competition that was jointly organised with NASA to identify the best ideas for the future of airborne vehicles.
How can large amounts of energy be stored quickly, cost-effectively and over longer periods of time, where required? In the cross-sectoral GigaStore project, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is working on the further development of power and heat storage for all areas of application.
Dealing with fluctuations in solar energy is one of the biggest challenges on the way to a sustainable energy supply. Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) are working on a technology that will hopefully make it possible to operate energy networks with a high proportion of solar energy in a more stable and efficient manner.
How can ever-larger volumes of scientific data be processed and evaluated? And how can Earth observation data be meaningfully combined with ground measurements, thereby opening up new sources of information? In the cross-sectoral Big Data Platform project, researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are devising new methods for the future-oriented field of Big Data Science. The interdisciplinary research project involves 21 DLR institutes from the research fields of spaceflight, aeronautics, transport, energy, digitalisation and security – all working together. The project is set to run for four years and has received more than 21 million euro of funding.