Launch of the MAPHEUS 14 research rocket in January 2024
In January 2024, with over 14 experiments onboard, the MAPHEUS rocket reached an altitude of approximately 260 kilometres, providing over six minutes under microgravity conditions for its passengers. The payload was safely recovered just a few hours after launch, enabling studies into, for example, the formation of structures in soft matter with nanoparticles, the influence of gravity on processes in living neural networks and current encryption techniques for data transmission from orbit.
Image: 2/3, Credit:
Mathias Forsberg, Swedish Space Corporation (SSC)
Bed rest study at DLR's :envihab facility
The bed is tilted six degrees head down, simulating the gravitational effects experienced by astronauts in space. The upcoming study at :envihab, the aerospace medicine laboratory in Cologne, slated to commence in September 2024, will primarily focus on examining sensorimotor impairments resulting from prolonged space missions and exploring potential countermeasures.
The Research under Space Conditions programme topic focuses primarily on investigations in the fields of materials physics, medicine and life sciences.
The comparison of experimental results derived under microgravity conditions in space with those obtained on Earth improves our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms and processes in these areas.
The use of drop towers, parabolic flights, sounding rockets, the International Space Station (ISS), and DLR’s own :envihab laboratory enables DLR to conduct research under both real and simulated microgravity conditions.
In the field of life sciences, we investigate and comprehensively document the acute and chronic effects of extreme environmental conditions – such as atmospheric composition, nutrition, gravity, noise, light and radiation – on human health and performance under long-term and consistent observation. Cellular processes, individual organs and entire organisms are all considered.
Materials research focuses on the investigation of material structures and properties through theoretical research, experiments and simulations. Access to sounding rockets and the ISS enables these experiments to be conducted under microgravity conditions.
DLR operates two key materials research facilities on the ISS: the Materials Science Laboratory (MSL) and the Electromagnetic Levitator (EML). Both are used for experiments under microgravity conditions in orbit. In addition, DLR conducts materials research on sounding rocket missions, such as those carried out as part of the MAPHEUS programme – an important platform for DLR’s microgravity experiments.
