Exploring the expanse of space calls for strong alliances. After all, space travel is an expensive business – and requires the most sophisticated scientific know-how. Two established research organizations, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), are now strengthening their cooperation in this field. In December 2010 NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden and DLR Executive Board Chairman Prof. Dr. Johann-Dietrich Wörner signed a framework agreement intended to promote bilateral cooperation. In addition, the partners concluded the Lunar Science Institute Agreement on cooperation in the field of lunar exploration. In the future the DLR-administered German Network of Lunar Science and Exploration will work closely with the NASA Lunar Science Institute.
“Many space missions and projects can only be carried out through international cooperation, with NASA for example, because of their complexity and the associated costs. This is why DLR, as Germany’s national space agency and research center, is endeavouring to set up bilateral collaborations such as this,” explained Professor Wörner. He added: “Both DLR and other German facilities active in space research will benefit from this agreement. This includes universities and research institutions, such as the Max Planck Society, as well as companies in the German aerospace industry that are supported by DLR in its role as Germany’s space agency through the national space program.”
One example of cooperation between German and American companies is Shefex II, the unmanned DLR space vehicle that is shortly to be transported into space at the top of a two-stage rocket. Among other things, nine different heat shield systems will be tested with the vehicle. The production of the external shield involved not only the DLR, but also the US Boeing company and German aerospace firms such as EADS-Astrium and MT Aerospace. Shefex II is contributing to the development of a new orbital glider, which is planned to become available from 2020.
The NASA-DLR framework agreement covers cooperation in all relevant areas of aerospace research. In the field of space travel the focus is on Earth observation and research under space conditions as well as space flight operations and planetary research. The collaboration also covers the joint development of space vehicles and research platforms as well as the operation of research rockets and balloons. Additionally, the agreement envisions the exchange of scientists and scientific data. It is also planned to cooperate even more closely in the future when it comes to fostering new scientific talent. The DLR also sees the new agreement as an opportunity to further advance successful developments in radar technology. In the field of satellite-based radar technology, Germany has been successful with the two Earth observation satellites TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X. Their Earth surveying system, which functions
independently of weather and light conditions, has been attracting special interest in the USA for some time: DLR and NASA are planning the TanDEM-L follow-up mission together.
In the summer of 2010 the DLR and NASA GRACE project was extended after nine years of successful operation. The small satellite mission is producing an extraordinarily precise model of the Earth’s gravitational field and is contributing to climate research, for example, by documenting the effects of melting glaciers and shifting ocean currents.
Incidentally, German-American cooperation is continuing on the International Space Station (ISS). In January 2011 a team of scientists from the Bremen-based Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) and their colleagues from Portland State University began the Capillary Channel Flow Experiment on the space station with the goal, among other things, of helping to optimize fuel consumption in space.////
